


The Forest Beckoning

by glissandos



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - High School, Developing Friendships, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Magic, More Fluff, Secrets, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, Supernatural Elements, ish, many secrets to be revealed, nature dates, now with:
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-02-18 21:41:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 61,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22533613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glissandos/pseuds/glissandos
Summary: Both Lee Minho and the forest behind the music shop are hiding intriguing secrets. Jisung thinks the two might be connected, but he’s also not sure if he wants to find out. (He’s just trying to finish high school, and stay out of trouble).---Jisung tenses up. He knows this small distraction is the time he needs to get out of the forest so that the stranger will never notice his presence, but as he takes his first step back his right foot lands right on a twig, snapping it upon impact. Just his luck. The boy whips his head around so quickly that Jisung is frozen in place behind the tree, mind running a million miles a minute and ready to blurt out anything to cover himself.“By any chance, you wouldn’t happen to have seen an orange tabby cat with keys in its mouth run past here, would you?”
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Comments: 115
Kudos: 392





	1. Chapter 1

The sun is starting to sink beneath the treetops, accentuating their outlines in a golden highlight, when Jisung flips the OPEN sign hanging from the door around to read CLOSED. He steps outside, fumbling his attempts to dig the store key out of his pocket, and lets out a loud sigh as it clatters to the ground. The key glints up at him from the cement, shiny and silvery under the setting sun, mocking Jisung’s dull and tired state. He sighs again; it’s been a day filled with annoying customers and he just wants to go home. But he has to lock up first.

Jisung is reluctantly bending down to grab the key when a cat suddenly appears, scooping the entire mess—the key and the long lanyard it hangs from—up with its mouth. Then it starts sauntering down the street, in the general direction of… the forest.

Jisung panics. He didn’t even notice the cat when he was closing up shop, let alone see it sneak up on him. And now it has his keys. Cursing under his breath, he takes off after the cat, hoping nobody decides to break into the music shop tonight; with the door still unlocked, they’d have an easy job doing so.

The cat, a creamy white and orange tabby, turns and glances back as if checking that Jisung is following, scrutinizing him through its piercing amber eyes before moving faster down the sidewalk—fast enough that Jisung just can’t quite catch up.

The forest looms closer, pine trees looking especially dark as silhouettes in the sunset. Jisung really doesn’t want to venture there. When his family had first moved into town, he’d heard rumors of strange happenings that would occur, including supposed dark magic. Even Chan, the owner of the music store, would occasionally mutter things about why people would want to build a storefront next to a forest. Still, nothing bad has happened to any of them, despite all the rumors and the forbidden aura that the woods seem to emanate.

The cat passes the last store on Windfall Lane, a small restaurant on the corner of the storefront, and crosses a small grassy clearing before darting into the woods. Jisung sighs. Of course it would.

He pauses; he’s avoided entering the forest ever since he moved here, but Chan will probably kill him if he loses the keys. Jisung thinks of all the times he’s chased Changbin down for either candy or silly revenge and channels all his energy into pretending he’s doing that again, not sprinting headlong into a spooky forest. If he runs fast enough, he can surely catch up to the cat, even though the cat doesn’t seem to be exerting nearly as much energy as Jisung is. Chan’s weary face appears in his head again, which makes Jisung feel even worse. He _has_ to get the key, and… _The cat is Changbin, and this is the school courtyard, the cat is Changbin…_ he ducks forward and stretches his hands down, barely managing to get a fistful of fur.

 _Gotcha_ , Jisung thinks, except the fur slips through his fingers. The cat continues running, wiggling out of his grasp and darting behind the nearest tree and disappearing. Jisung arrives at the spot where he last saw the cat, but it’s nowhere to be found. Which means there’s no chance of getting the key back.

Jisung takes a deep breath. Okay. He’s definitely going to be in trouble. With Chan, it’s never just loud yelling that he gets from people like his parents, rather just plain disappointment and a solemn silence that makes Jisung feel much worse. However… maybe Chan has an extra copy of the key somewhere? At least that’s what Jisung desperately tries to tell himself as he stands in the middle of the forest in the last few rays of evening sunlight. What luck he has. He makes himself swear that he’s actually going to actually wear the lanyard around his neck instead of shoving it in his pants pockets next time, just so he doesn’t drop the key attached to it. History can have ugly ways of repeating itself, and that cat was definitely a bad sign.

He swivels back around, ready to trudge back to shop and call Chan, ready to keep watch over the shop to make sure nobody steals anything before Chan arrives (hopefully with a spare key). But the forest seems to have enveloped him, the safe grassy clearing much further in the distance than it should be. He couldn’t have run that far when he was chasing the cat into the woods, could he? Jisung gulps. It’s just his mind, playing tricks. It’s just his mind.

He’s about to sprint out of the trees as fast as he came when he hears distant whispering on his left.

Jisung shivers. All his instincts tell him to run, but curiosity _does_ kill the cat. He quietly tiptoes closer to the noise. In a few steps, the whispers turn into a distinct human voice. It’s definitely a male speaking, but his tones sound dulcet and sweet.

“It’s okay,” the voice gently says, and Jisung hears a whine in response. Jisung peers out from behind the trunk of a cedar tree, and sees… well, not what he’s expecting to see. Although, he doesn’t really know what he expected.

It’s a boy, with his hands around a metal bucket that he’s holding beneath the snout of a deer. Two other smaller deer—they look like calves—are gathered around him expectantly. Jisung squints. Is he feeding the animals? That’s not healthy for them; he knows that the deer have plenty to graze on in this thriving, albeit mysterious, forest, and that feeding will only make them more dependent on humans. Jisung is ready to tell the person to stop when the mother deer writhes in place, arches her neck back, and then retches, head swinging forward. Her eyes are strangely dark and empty, but when an ugly dark glob of something flies out of her mouth and into the bucket, her irises seem to clear up, fading back to a mellow brown.

“There, there. It’s okay,” the boy says again, gently petting the deer’s forehead. The doe whimpers, stamping the ground with her hooves and coughing out another dark mass into the bucket, but soon she appears to be finally calming down, no longer spasming or retching. Once the boy makes sure she’s okay, he pulls the bucket away from her snout and slams a lid onto it with a quickness that seems almost inhuman, muttering something incoherently. Then he sets the bucket on the ground, dusting his hands off on his pants. He glances up at the sky, and, like Jisung, must realize that it’s getting a bit dark to still be out in the forest.

“Okay guys, it’s time to head on home. If you ever need help again, you know what to do.”

The deer dip their heads in understanding— _holy shit do they understand the boy?_ —before slinking off into the shadows of the trees. The boy picks his bucket back up and makes move as if to leave, but something makes him pause to look back in the direction of the long-gone deer.

Jisung tenses up. He knows this small distraction is the time he needs to get out of the forest so that the stranger will never notice his presence, but as he takes his first step back his right foot lands right on a twig, snapping it upon impact. Just his luck. The boy whips his head around so quickly that Jisung is frozen in place behind the tree, his own pupils wide in what is probably an imitation of a deer caught in the headlights. _Situational irony_ , Jisung notes dryly. Their eyes meet, and Jisung breaks contact quickly, though not before he notices the long eyelashes that the other boy has.

Jisung’s mind is running a million miles a minute, ready to blurt out anything to cover himself, but then he backtracks, refocusing and risking another glance at the sweater-clad boy in front of him.

Jisung knows who this is. It’s Lee Minho, the quiet senior in his math class who always seems to be paying full attention and yet also no attention to the teacher at all. Jisung thinks Chan mentioned something about Minho and dancing a while back.

A flicker of recognition passes through Minho’s face too, and he nods curtly. But any gentleness in his previous demeanor with the deer is now closed off, expression unreadable.

Jisung carefully nods back. Then his mouth has to ruin it.

“By any chance, you wouldn’t happen to have seen an orange tabby cat with keys in its mouth run past here, would you?”

Minho blinks slowly, letting the words sink in. But he doesn’t question the strangeness of Jisung’s question—maybe because he seems to be engaging in abnormal activities himself. “No, I haven’t,” Minho eventually says.

“Okay, well, thanks anyway.” Jisung takes another step back. He wants to ask what Minho was doing, but he’s also scared. A bit scared of Minho, and definitely scared of whatever the substance was that the deer was throwing up. A substance that Minho had to rapid-fire put a lid over. As if on cue, the bucket trembles in Minho’s grip, and he glances down, grimacing at the sight. He shoves the lid down ever tighter, before looking back up and fixing Jisung with a crooked smile. Very reassuring.

Oh, and Jisung’s scared of the rapidly encroaching dark, as dusk slips into night. He can just make out the beginning of the storefront. Jisung continues inching backwards towards the direction of escape but then Minho is suddenly at his side, very questionable and dangerous bucket in one hand.

“Let’s get you home. This is no time to be wandering in the forest,” Minho says, walking forward. There’s no real bite to his words, but they sound like a warning nonetheless, and Jisung swallows before trailing behind Minho, making sure to walk on the opposite side of the bucket. If nothing else, Jisung is reassured by the fact that he’s leaving the forest alongside someone else’s company; spooky scary things generally attack people wandering unawares and alone. Then again, Minho is harboring a dark substance in his lidded bucket.

The walk back is mostly silent, except as Jisung is sneaking back to the music store Minho has to ask, “So, why were you in the forest in the first place?”

 _Why were_ you _in the forest?_ Jisung wants to retort, but he doesn’t want to see how Minho might react.

“Cat took my keys and ran off,” Jisung replies. Why he’s being honest to an almost-stranger, he doesn’t know. Maybe Minho will finally get off his case and just leave with his creepy bucket full of _something_.

Minho hums thoughtfully. “So you weren’t lying, then. I thought that was just an excuse.” Then a shadow falls over his eyes. “But I still have to ask, how much did you see?”

Jisung doesn’t speak. He’s too scared to. The bucket rattles again, causing Jisung to flinch. He and Minho engage in a stare-down until Minho crosses his arms and fixes him with an ever sharper glare.

“Uhhhh, not that much! And don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone what I saw, if that’s what you’re worried about!” Jisung spills out anxiously.

Finally, Minho seems to loosen up. He chuckles. “Yeah, I figured. But to make sure, let’s just keep this a secret, alright?”

Jisung quickly nods. Once, twice, three times. He’s being extra agreeable. He does not want to see the bucket and whatever lies inside ever again, thank you very much.

“And I’ll let you know if I ever see the cat that stole your keys. Good luck with that, by the way.”

And with that, Minho steps off the sidewalk.

Jisung is left there, standing in front of the yet-to-be-locked door of the music store and staring stupidly as Minho crosses the street, bucket still in his hand.

In the dwindling daylight, Jisung would have thought Minho was pretty if he hadn’t just walked onto what was probably the strangest and scariest sight since he moved into town.

Minho turns the corner, and Jisung snaps back to reality, pulling his phone out of his pocket and dialing Chan’s number.

“Chan? Hello? I may have a small problem.”

\---

Jisung decides to leave out the part about Minho (especially when Minho warned him not to say anything), instead telling Chan about the strange cat that had run off with the key. But it turns out that Chan does have a spare key after all, which saves Jisung from most of his wrath. Still, Chan does warn Jisung that this is his last key, and that he won’t be able to make a copy of it for a few days. Until then, since Jisung works the last shift in the evenings, he’ll have to lock up in the afternoon, keep the key safe (and _not lose it_ , Chan emphasizes) all night before dropping by the shop before school in the mornings to meet up with Chan and unlock the door for him. Having graduated high school the year before, Chan’s studying at a local college and has arranged his classes to always take the morning shift. Jisung, sadly, still a junior, can’t escape.

After opening up shop with Chan the next day and heading towards school, Jisung has a realization. He’s going to have to face Minho during math class later—or maybe not face him, if he avoids any interaction. Before Jisung stumbled across him in the woods, they’d never said a word to each other before. It would be easy to continue doing so, to pretend like Minho isn’t up to any suspicious activity and never associate with him again.

And there are the rumors about magic. They might be true after all. Jisung certainly can’t describe the substance in the bucket as anything he’s ever seen, and by the rattling it made inside, he’s almost inclined to believe the dark blobs are conscious. Jisung tries not to dwell on it. As long as he never goes back into those woods, he’ll never have to witness such a weird scene again, and he’ll graduate in a year and a half and move on with his life.

And, well, if Minho’s a senior, Jisung won’t have to see him after half a year; second semester just started and soon Jisung can forget he ever saw anything happen.

\---

The thing is, Jisung is being too wishful when he hopes to be left alone. Nothing eventful happens the next day, and Jisung pointedly avoids looking in Minho’s direction during math class. He even sprints out of class after school just in case Minho decides to accost him as he’s leaving.

But… when he walks into sixth period calculus a week later Minho is waiting at his desk with a lanyard dangling from his fingers and a smirk plastered on his face. And at the bottom of the very-familiar lanyard is the lost music shop key.

Jisung gapes. “What- how? Where?” he stutters out incoherently. A few students glance up curiously at the interaction.

Minho continues to smile at him, spinning the lanyard around on his finger. He blinks slowly. “Let’s talk after class,” he finally says, catching the key at the top of its spin in his palm and sticking the lanyard into his pocket. He slinks back to his seat across the room.

Jisung curses at him in his head. Minho _has_ to know that he’s drawing out the suspense.

He can’t concentrate for the next hour, foot tapping impatiently and pencil twirling anxiously in his hand as he waits for the bell to ring. Jisung can’t even begin to fathom how Minho found the music shop key, especially in a huge forest. And the cat could have gone anywhere. Then there’s also the _why_ —there’s no reason Jisung can think of as to why Minho—who was practically a stranger days ago—would go out of his way to find that stupid key.

Technically, Jisung doesn’t even need the key anymore, since Chan’s going out today to get a copy of his spare made for Jisung. Yet he’s also extremely curious; curious about how Minho got the key, and curious about _Minho_ , and whatever was going on in the forest that day. Still scared, yes, but Jisung can’t help it. If curiosity kills the cat, he’s going to be run over and trampled by the time this is over.

Sometime near the end of the period Jisung thinks he sees Minho watching him out of the corner of his eye, but he forces himself not to look and to focus on the teacher. The final five minutes pass by excruciatingly slow, and Jisung almost sends his pencil flying out of his hand once when he gives it an aggressive spin, fingers twitching afterward. Out of the corner of his eye, he thinks he sees Minho watching him, but refuses to look back.

The bell finally sounds, and Jisung shoves his books in his backpack before leaving the classroom and waiting nervously in the hallway outside. There’s really nothing to be anxious about, except Minho is intimidating and social situations with people you barely know are also intimidating, which makes this extra-intimidating.

Minho steps out of class with the lanyard and key out and clasped in his hand again, and gives Jisung an amused look when he sees him standing there with his hands awkwardly fidgeting with his backpack straps.

“Okay, Minho,” Jisung says with as much confidence he can muster, which, at that moment, is clearly not a lot. “You said you’d tell me. So how’d you find this?”

Minho dangles the key in front of Jisung like a hypnotist. “Ah, this? I’m afraid I can’t quite go into the specifics, but I’ll tell you this. I was out in the woods again yesterday and I came across this on the way there. The cat you mentioned must have dropped it.”

Jisung frowns. The story sounds reasonable, but not interesting or magical or mysterious at all (other than the question of why Minho even goes into the forest to tend to deer that cough up strange substances in the first place). It seems too lucky to be true. Yet, Jisung doesn’t question it. Maybe it’s for the better.

Minho must notice though, because the corners of his own mouth quirk upward and he says, “Not exciting enough for you? Do you want me to say that the cat was tap dancing in the forest on two hind legs while wearing this key like a necklace, and that I ambushed it and stole the key back just for you?” He blinks exaggeratedly, before breaking out into an unfairly melodious laugh at what must be a ridiculous expression on Jisung’s face.

“Anyway, Jisung, I came to make a deal. You can have your key back, but in return you have to swear that you won’t say a thing about what you saw last week.”

Jisung’s frown deepens. “I already did, though?”

“You nodded in agreement when I told you not to tell anyone else about it,” he points out. “But I want you to swear on it.”

Jisung probably looks as perplexed as he feels, but he agrees anyway. “I’ll do it, but I don’t see why…” he trails off.

“And what do you propose I should ask for in return?” Minho has the audacity to wiggle his eyebrows in a way that is definitely _not_ insinuating. And to think last week in the forest he had regarded Jisung so coldly.

God, Jisung had better not be blushing right now. “It’s not like I need the key anyway,” he says, avoiding the question.

This finally seems to do something—Minho’s smirk falls off, just for a second. “Oh really?” he asks nonchalantly, but Jisung thinks he sees through it.

Jisung isn’t a cruel person, though, and while it might be fun to tease Minho he still hasn’t forgotten what he saw in the woods, or how Minho was handling dangerous things that flew out of deer’s mouths.

“Yeah, but I’ll do the stupid swear anyway. That’s what you want, right?”

Minho looks startled, albeit pleasantly. “Okay. Repeat after me. _I, Han Jisung, swear that I shall never tell anyone else about any of the events I witnessed that transpired on the fifth day of the second month of the year xxxx._ ”

“What is this, elementary school? Are you gonna make me do a blood oath too?”

“ _I, Han Jisung, swear…_ ” Minho repeats insistently.

“Okay, okay, I’ll do it. I, Han Jisung, swear that I shall never tell anyone else about any of the events I witnessed that transpired on the fifth day of the second month of the year xxxx.” Jisung says. “There. Done.”

Then, as soon as he’s done reciting the words, something interesting happens. It’s only for a fraction of a second, but Jisung’s brain experiences a brief fuzzy sensation before it quickly fades away. When Jisung regains his focus, he thinks Minho is muttering the end of a sentence, but he can’t hear what.

But Minho says he has a class after school, and promptly leaves, dropping the key in Jisung’s hand on his way out and leaving Jisung floundering.

“Thank you,” Jisung remembers to call out after him, forgetting about the momentary disorientation he experienced.

Minho doesn’t turn around, so Jisung doesn’t see the smug smile on his face as he walks away—Minho only makes deals that he can benefit from. But while Minho has gotten all he’s wanted, the forest isn’t done with Jisung.

...That’s where the problem starts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first stray kids fic and I'm super excited about this idea—hope you guys enjoy the ride!


	2. Chapter 2

It’s two weeks later when Minho approaches Jisung again, despite Jisung’s efforts to avoid awkward eye contact with him during math. Sometimes, he thinks Minho is burning holes into his side from his seat across the room, but whenever Jisung sneaks a glance Minho is either staring absentmindedly into space or attentively listening to the teacher, face resting in his palm as he scribbles notes onto his paper—how he manages to simultaneously look focused and unfocused is still a mystery.

Once, Minho walks into sixth period with _the_ metal bucket hanging from his hand and Jisung tries his hardest not to stare. He’s probably less inconspicuous than he thinks, but albeit all his spying Minho appears not to notice—or chooses to ignore Jisung’s blatant suspicion. Despite that, Jisung is surprised that nobody else notices how much the bucket sticks out of place in the classroom, though. If he were being honest, Jisung probably wouldn’t care either, until he had the run-in with Minho in the forest; now his eyes seem drawn to the latter because of it.

Regardless, Jisung fails to see the bucket moving on its own again. Maybe Minho has emptied it. Which should be reassuring, except the fact that Minho’s still carrying the bucket around means he's still actively using it for his shady business.

Another time, Jisung doesn’t have a shift at the music shop after school, and he’s really tempted to spy on Minho, to follow him and see if he goes back into the woods. But no matter how curious he is, Jisung cannot get over his phobia of the place—one time is enough, he thinks.

...unfortunately, it isn’t.

Minho confronts Jisung as he’s packing up, and Jisung’s calculator almost drops out of his hand when, in his peripheral vision, he sees Minho wandering towards him. Jisung shoves his pencils into a side pocket and yanks the zipper down before silently calming his frantic mind and turning to face Minho.

Minho appears unfazed. Thankfully, there’s no bucket with him today (the bucket really only made an appearance during class that one time) and his hands are shoved into his jacket pockets instead.

Actually, Minho looks about as enthusiastic as Jisung feels… which is to say, not much. His mouth has none of its usual quirk, positioned in a flat and disinterested line across his face. _Interesting,_ Jisung notes.

“Uh… hello?” Jisung hesitantly says. Actually, he's tempted to demand outright _What do you want,_ but that would be horribly rude, even if Minho is probably here because he’s up to something.

“Hi,” Minho replies, deadpan. “Okay, look, I’m just going to have to be straightforward about this. You’ll have to come with me.”

 _That’s kinda sketchy,_ Jisung’s mind warns. “And why should I do that?” comes out of his mouth instead.

Minho glances around them, and Jisung follows his gaze. The math teacher fixes them with a question in her eyes, probably wondering what they’re doing because they’re the last two students in the classroom and they clearly don’t need to talk to her.

“Let’s go outside first,” Minho says, and before Jisung can say anything else Minho is already making a beeline for the door.

Jisung hastily shoves his arms through his windbreaker before shouldering his backpack and scrambling to catch up to Minho in the hallways. His backpack thumps uncomfortably against his shoulders and he has to almost jog to match Minho’s pace.

“So why should I be following you? And where are we going?” Jisung asks between strides.

“Outside, first,” Minho repeats with a frown on his face. “Too many students here.”

Very mysterious. But Jisung would be lying if he said he wasn’t intrigued, fingers fidgeting impatiently at his side. So sue him.

They make a pit stop by Minho’s locker, where Minho shoves his backpack inside and instructs Jisung to do the same. “They’re a hassle to walk with. School doors don’t lock until six, so we’ll be back well before then,” is the explanation he receives. Before Jisung can protest and ask to put his backpack in his own locker, Minho clicks the lock back on, and Jisung has no other option.

They reach one of the hallway exits and Minho briskly pushes the door open, before taking a right and finally slowing down his pace outside. He doesn’t say anything else until they’re a safe distance away from school.

Jisung debates leaving but his feet keep moving in step with Minho’s. Stupid feet.

“I can’t really explain all of this by myself, so that’s why we’re going back to the forest.” Minho starts.

Jisung’s head shoots up. Sure enough, the unmistakable pine trees have resurfaced in the distance. Just great. Jisung can feel the chills creeping up his spine already.

“First off, what do you mean, not _by yourself?_ Who else should I expect to see there? And do we really have to go back into the forest? I mean, can you really blame me for not wanting to after I saw… _that_ …” he finishes lamely. He still can’t get the image of the thrashing mother deer out of his head, and the dark substances Minho caught in his bucket have been flitting in and out of his recent dreams.

“Well, I want to do this as much as you do.” Minho says wryly. “But we have to go back. I know you can’t possibly understand yet, but you’ll see. The _forest_ is going to be helping me explain this… this mess.” He looks somewhat less begrudging, though, and more empathetic now, which is probably a better sign. Just in case Minho is a killer, maybe he’s less inclined to do anything to Jisung now.

Jisung takes a deep breath. Okay. It’ll be fine. He’s going back into the woods with a person he doesn’t really know, but it’s company nonetheless. Minho can’t be a kidnapper, or serial killer, right? It’ll be fine.

(It _should_ be fine.)

They pass the music store on the way and Jisung waves to Chan through the store window, which leads to Minho’s finally perking up as he smiles and waves at Chan as well (Jisung assumes they’re good friends, since Minho’s name is occasionally brought up in his conversations with Chan). Chan does a double-take when he sees the two together, and Jisung shrugs back as if to say _I’m as confused as you are._

And then… ah yes, the woods approaching. Dark pine trees looming over them in broad daylight.

He thinks Minho is trying to be reassuring when he says they won’t be venturing too deep into the forest, but he feels apprehension nonetheless. It’s going to be the second time in the span of two weeks that Jisung enters the place, when he had managed to avoid doing so even once since moving into the town.

When Minho realizes that Jisung’s paused at the edge of the woods, he glances back, and his mouth forms what Jisung thinks is supposed to be a reassuring smile.

“I’m sorry. This wasn’t my decision either, so you can go back if you want. But… I’ll just say that you might be disrupting natural order if you do,” Minho slowly says. He runs a hand through his hair, probably the only hint that Minho’s at least somewhat anxious about the whole situation too.

Jisung hovers on the brink, frozen for another moment. And then his feet move of their own accord, walking forward despite all the irrational thoughts in his brain ripping each other apart.

Jisung swears he’s going to murder his eager, curious feet when he gets home, if something in the forest doesn’t do it first.

They enter the forest together, and Jisung feels the temperature shift slightly, air sinking colder. The trees serve as a shield from the mild winter sun, their canopies covering up what limited warmth there is. The glimpses of light behind them get dimmer with each step.

Eventually, Minho takes the lead, casting glances behind him every now and then to make sure that Jisung’s following. He moves swiftly through the trees, a shadow in the undergrowth; his dark clothes blend into the trunks and the patches of dirt that young grass haven’t claimed. Meanwhile, Jisung’s pretty sure his bright blue windbreaker makes him a walking target for any darkness lurking around. In his defense, it _was_ supposed to rain today, and it does feel more like a cloudy day now that the trees have concealed all but a few stray rays of sun.

After what feels like forever, Minho comes to an abrupt stop in front of him, darting behind a wide tree trunk. Jisung feels a sharp tug on his arm as he’s pulled into hiding alongside Minho.

Before Jisung can ask anything, Minho speaks up.

“Sorry, didn’t expect this to happen,” he says, still firmly gripping Jisung’s arm. He sounds genuinely apologetic. “We should be fine as long as we stay quiet.”

“What?” Jisung whisper-shouts, distressed. “What’s going on?” The words _we should be fine_ swim through his head. _Should_ isn’t a guarantee.

“Quiet!” Minho aggressively whispers back. “Just watch.” His breath tickles Jisung’s ear, and he realizes that he’s a lot closer than he ever wanted to be with Minho, though Jisung can’t deny that having another warm body pressed behind him does help reduce the shivers he once again feels. Cursed forest.

Jisung has a sudden sense of deja vu, remembering how he was similarly planted behind a trunk two weeks ago when he stumbled across Minho and the deer. Unfortunately, the situation seems to be more petrifying this time, though (fortunately?) he’s not alone.

Minho peers out from behind the tree trunk, and Jisung does similarly. The sight is certainly one to behold, and Jisung suddenly feels a lot more scared.

In front of them lies a small clearing, where the trees have parted to reveal a patch of meadow, or what should be meadow. Without the shade from the treetops, the clearing should be sunny, except it is anything but. The absence of light is the first thing Jisung notices, in addition to how the air temperature has an additional bite to it, chilling him despite the layers he’s wearing.

The glade is dead. Not even dead, but beyond dead. Instead of being yellow and shriveled up, or brown and waterlogged, the grass is a sickly shade of dark gray, and the flowers aren’t wilted but rather frozen into chalky, stonelike figures. Everything looks _wrong_. Like a grayscale picture that didn’t come out well.

In the midst of the clearing are deer. If the deer that Jisung saw Minho with looked slightly pale but otherwise healthy, these deer seem beyond saving, with deathly globs of black crawling up their antlers and clouding their eyes. The air is murky; the strange substance seems to be feeding off the deer and radiating darkness that consumes the sunlight.

It shouldn’t be possible. And yet it is. What Jisung is witnessing right now… nobody would believe it. He really shouldn’t have followed Minho today.

It’s magic. And it’s definitely dark magic.

Jisung’s breathing grows shallow. He really, really wants to leave. But any movement might attract unwanted attention.

“Shit,” Minho breathes from behind him. “I don’t think _it_ is going to leave anytime soon. We’ll leave now and I’ll try to explain everything as much as I can; we’ll come back another time when _it’s_ gone.”

“Okay.” Jisung gulps. Does he even want an explanation? The answer is yes and no at once; he’s stumbled across something that he can’t forget about anymore, though he can try to forget it. Or he can try to understand it.

He cranes his neck from behind the trunk to get one last glimpse, but then the tallest deer turns his head around, and suddenly time almost slows down and Jisung’s making the worst eye contact of his life. Having Minho discover him behind the tree two weeks ago feels like nothing compared to this. _Fuck, fuck fuck._

Despite being dull and foggy, the deer’s eyes directly latch onto Jisung’s. It’s for less than a second, but Jisung feels like the deer has sucked all of his secrets out of him, like the deer knows everything and more about who he is. Like the deer’s eyes are black holes.

Jisung uses all the willpower in him to turn back to Minho with panic evident in his eyes. “Minho, I-”

Minho’s eyes are equally wide in an alarmed expression Jisung has never seen before on his face, and that terrifies him even more.

“Hold onto me. And run,” Minho hisses. Before Jisung can react, Minho has his hand clasped in his and he’s being pulled into a sprint.

Jisung thinks he hears the telltale pounding of hoofbeats rapidly gaining on them. He feels silvery wisps reaching for them from behind, like an invisible string is trying to pull him backwards. They aren’t going to make it.

Then Minho squeezes his hand, hard, and Jisung feels something course through his body. Minho brings them to a stop.

“Don’t. Move,” Minho grits out, like he’s straining under an invisible effort. Maybe he is.

Jisung turns his head minutely, just to glimpse what Minho’s doing, but he can’t see him. At all. Jisung still feels the presence of Minho’s hand in his own, and he can hear Minho taking shallow, controlled breaths beside him. Jisung risks a tiny glance down. He can’t see himself either. The out-of-body experience is incredibly strange, especially because he’s existing, but he has no proof of his existence anymore. Invisibility.

 _Okay, okay,_ so the magic goes both ways. If Minho’s running with him away from the dark magic, then this magic is _good_ magic, right?

In the next second, the hoofsteps roar past them and Jisung feels the wind of the deer speeding past their space, before his hair settles back down. Still, he doesn’t risk moving, holding in a breath against his lungs’ vicious complaint.

Finally, Minho shifts next to him, and they both fade into view. Minho’s hand trembles, and Jisung has to hold it tightly as Minho’s head almost slumps onto his shoulder. His face looks considerably paler, and he’s gulping in deep breaths.

“Didn’t expect I’d have to use so much strength to do that,” Minho pants. Then: “Well, it was the first time that I tried to camoflauge two people.” He leans further into Jisung, and Jisung looks down, worried. But Minho’s legs aren’t wobbling under him anymore, and he seems to be quickly regaining strength.

“Um… take your time, but _please_ explain what the heck is going on when we get back. And, uh, I don’t know if you’ll be able to convince me to come back here again. We could have died, couldn’t we? And are you okay? Will you be able to walk back?” Jisung gets out, unease and panic seeping through his words.

Even though Minho’s still suspicious, and even though Jisung now knows he’s dangerously powerful, Minho did just use that power to help hide Jisung. So Jisung can’t _not_ be concerned for him.

After inhaling and exhaling a few more times, Minho detaches himself from Jisung and slowly straightens himself up. Though his face has regained most of its color, his eyebrows are furrowed, and he looks upset. “I’ll be fine,” he says emphatically. “It’s just—I really didn’t want to drag another person into this, but I don’t think I have a choice. I’ll definitely give you an explanation, but I don’t think you have a choice either.”

His words are cryptic, even more so when Minho seems to be unsure of them too.

“...okay?” Jisung says tentatively, when Minho doesn’t elaborate further.

Instead, he reaches for Jisung’s hand again. “Still have to be careful as we leave the forest, it might double back.” Minho’s palms are sweaty despite the cool weather, no doubt as a result of the exertion he used to… _camouflage_ … them, Minho had said. Still, Jisung doesn’t complain. If the deer really do decide to return, he needs to be holding Minho’s hand or else he’s screwed.

But there has been something that’s been bugging Jisung. “You keep calling the deer ‘it,’ why?”

“I’m not exactly referring to the deer,” Minho says darkly, as they start to take slower steps back to the outskirts of the forest. “The deer mean no harm, just like the ones you first saw me with. But ‘it’ is the….the _thing_ … that manifested itself into the deer’s bodies. We can’t understand how it was able to get inside, but we’ve been trying. Actually, that’s why I had to bring you here today…” he trails off.

Jisung’s blood runs cold as he recalls his eye contact with the deer moments before. The pull of the deer’s eyes was probably the dark magic working its hardest. He scrunches his eyes shut and tries not to reimagine the feeling.

“I’ll finish explaining later. Just stay quiet for now, and walk carefully, so we can hear if it comes back. It may not even be in the deer when it returns. It can infest intelf into just about any living thing. Even us. That’s why we have to avoid it.”

Jisung closes his eyes and counts to three, calming his churning stomach.

“The trees, the grass, deer, bears, insects… humans… it seems unstoppable. But the moving creatures are what we’re worried about, because it uses those to infiltrate into other animals. The good news is that it seems to be stuck in the forest. At least for now,” Minho reveals, and it sounds far too ominous of a story for what’s supposed to be an innocent town.

Thankfully, they reach the edge of the forest without another scare and Jisung can finally breathe freely.

They make it back to school to retrieve their backpacks, and as Jisung’s fumbling to get his arms into his backpack Minho regards him with a thoughtful look.

“What?” Jisung asks warily. He holds eye contact with Minho for an uncomfortably long time, and is inexplicably drawn in by Minho’s unfairly long lashes that delicately curl up on their ends. It doesn’t help that Minho’s hair is also attractively tousled by the wind from their earlier escapade. Jisung has to remind himself to focus and listen when Minho finally opens his mouth.

“Sorry I couldn’t show you what I was supposed to today, and that everything got derailed really badly. I know you aren’t ready to go back into the forest yet—I wouldn’t want to go back if I were you, either—so how about we talk after school tomorrow, in the music shop, or somewhere else where there aren’t a lot of people.”

Jisung takes a moment to digest the words. What if he just walked away from it all? But now that he’s seen all this, Jisung is itching to know more.

“I would appreciate that,” he says, relenting to his curiosity. “The music shop would work, but it’s Chan’s shift tomorrow…”

“Don’t worry about that,” Minho vaguely replies. “Anyway, the practice rooms are soundproof, right?”

“Yeah?” Jisung hesitantly answers. “They should be.”

“Okay, so it’s settled then.” Minho says, and he smiles politely at Jisung. It’s not unfeeling, not the kind of smile you give strangers, but it isn’t exactly a friendly smile either. It’s a somewhat relieved smile shown to someone you just had a near-death experience with. A smile shown to someone whom you’ll soon be revealing a lot to, Jisung thinks. Neither a good nor a bad smile.

So Minho takes his leave again. By the time Jisung stops by his own locker to dump out his math textbook, he’s nowhere to be seen. Given how mysterious his behaviors are, Jisung’s certain that Minho isn’t going to reveal this entire jumble tomorrow, but hopefully he’ll get some insight, and more importantly, _answers._

Jisung decides to consult Chan first.

\---

“Chan!” he bellows into the shop, even after the sound of the door opening is probably enough of an indication of his presence.

“Jisung…” Chan returns with far less enthusiasm. There’s a customer at the counter, and they look as amused as Chan (so, not at all).

“Sorry,” Jisung apologizes half-heartedly, dumping his backpack behind the counter and pulling up another seat. He waits until the customer leaves the shop before speaking again.

“What were you doing with Minho earlier?” Chan narrows his eyes at Jisung.

“Actually, that’s what I wanted to ask you about,” Jisung says brightly, ignoring the question. Earlier, they had deliberately avoided the music shop and taken a different route back to school to pick up their backpacks after leaving the forest. Minho wouldn’t tell him why.

Jisung just wants to ask Chan the best path of action without revealing everything—Chan already knows that Jisung lost the keys a while back but he doesn’t need to know how.

“So, a couple weeks ago,” Jisung begins. “A couple weeks ago…” he frowns.

“A couple weeks ago,” Jisung tries again. He can’t finish his sentence. His mouth won’t speak, won’t form the words.

Like a truck barrelling into him, the thought hits Jisung head-on and with full force.

So that’s why Minho had wanted to make him swear to such odd terms. Sneaky Minho, whom Jisung now knows is capable of magic.


	3. Chapter 3

“Jisung?” 

Chan regards him with a funny stare, probably thoroughly confused even as Jisung is barely coming to a realization about how magic works. He’ll have to be more careful about his words and actions in the future, he thinks. Minho may not be an enemy, but Jisung still has to be wary; if Minho’s capable of camouflaging people and holding them to oddly specific swears, then he has to be able to do other things, too. 

In the meantime, he’s going to beat Minho at his game. 

Jisung only swore not to reveal what happened in the forest that day two weeks ago, after all. He never made any tricky oaths about what they did today. Besides, he doesn’t have to start at the beginning to give Chan an idea of what’s going on anyway. And Jisung knows that Minho made him swear so that he wouldn’t reveal anything to sketchy people, but Chan’s a good friend, and definitely someone whom Jisung can trust. 

Unfortunately, it seems like Chan’s been hiding some secrets too. 

“You and Minho went out in the forest?” Chan asks, incredulous, after Jisung has only barely begun to explain the events of earlier that day. 

“Okay! I know I seem like the biggest scaredy-cat but I did go into the forest, and—”

“I can’t believe you two actually went in. Does Minho know what he’s getting you into? It’s extremely dangerous out there, especially given the current situation…” Chan trails off, but it’s clear he knows about the strange, dark magic lurking in the forest. Probably just as much as Minho. 

“I can’t believe you’ve been keeping secrets from me!” Jisung retorts, a bit petulantly but with no real bite; Chan’s just like a parent with only good intentions.

“Jisung, I would only do this for your own safety. I didn’t expect you to actually venture into the forest. Knowing you, you wouldn’t have gone inside if nothing happened. Then... why’d you do it? What happened?”

Jisung shakes his head. “Swore to it. I’m sure you know what that means. Can’t reveal anything.” Though, the cat incident isn’t super exciting, and even if Jisung could tell Chan he probably wouldn’t. Chan would just feel bad, that he was part of the reason why Jisung ran into the forest, hoping not to disappoint him with a lost key. In the end the key was lost, and then found again by Minho, anyway. 

Chan sighs, exasperated. Jisung hates that look on his face. 

“As for today, I went with Minho because he said the forest had to show me something, but then we got sidetracked because of the… dark magic stuff,” Jisung says instead, because that much he can tell Chan. 

Chan’s eyebrows furrow and his frown deepens. “The forest?” He sighs again. “You’re in it for real, now. You’re one of us.” 

And maybe Jisung has a sense of what Chan is saying; maybe he doesn’t. “What do you mean?” he asks. _What magic can you do?_ He also wants to ask after. 

But Chan’s mouth only flattens itself into a grim line. “Since the forest seems to want you too, it would only have been a matter of time. But… Minho did get you into this. It’s best if he’s the one that explains it to you.” 

So much for Chan being the wise advisor. Jisung groans internally—another day of suspense. But maybe that’s for the better. What he doesn’t know can’t hurt him yet. 

\---

“Hey, Minho. So I might have told Chan what we did.” 

This time, Jisung is the one that appears at Minho’s desk once the bell rings, anxiously wringing his fingers as he awaits a response. 

Minho’s head snaps up, notebook and packing forgotten. “What? Did you tell him? But…”

“Yeah, so I figured out why you made me do that swear. Though you forgot that it only pertains to that one day.” Okay, maybe Jisung’s a bit self-satisfied; he hopes he doesn’t come off as too arrogant. He can’t help it though. It’s kind of nice to see Minho startled and not in control of the situation, for once. 

Minho drags a hand down his face. “So Chan’s basically gonna kill me when I see him later. How about we don’t have our talk in the music store, then?” 

Jisung quirks an eyebrow. “But last time you said it was okay because the practice rooms were soundproof anyway. And you sounded like you had an entire thing planned out so that nobody else could hear our conversations?” 

Minho almost glares at him. Almost. He seems to pick up on the fact that Jisung’s teasing. “Yeah, and the moment I walk in the door of the music shop I’ll get grilled by Chan, and I’d rather not today. So let’s avoid that, for now.” 

Minho finishes packing up and then, once again, walks off without another word, leaving Jisung unable to do anything but follow. 

_Ah well,_ Jisung thinks. If he wants information, he’ll have to cater to the informer. 

\---

They end up at the school library—luckily, one of the study rooms is vacant. 

Clearly, though they are just as much soundproof, the study rooms aren’t as private, and Minho is definitely not taking precautions. Jisung watches as Minho covers the tiny window on the door with a sheet of scratch paper. Math problems are messily scribbled all over it. 

“Why’d you do that? If someone looks in, we’ll just be talking...” Jisung wonders.

“Not necessarily,” Minho says, and chooses not to elaborate. 

“What if someone just opens the door, then?” 

“We’ll hear them anyway,” Minho points out, which _is_ true. Jisung reasons that Minho’s not trying to come off as snarky on purpose, hopefully. Jisung can’t read minds, so he wouldn't know.

Then the thought comes to Jisung. _Can Minho read minds?_ Probably not. If life were a video game, the ability would be too “overpowered.” 

_Would you rather fight twenty horse-sized rats or twenty rat-size horses,_ Jisung loudly thinks, anyway, testing his hypothesis. Minho shows no reaction to Jisung’s thoughts, and Jisung sighs in relief, putting down his backpack and taking a seat in one of the cushioned wooden chairs. 

Minho takes one last glance around the room, and then pulls up a chair next to him. 

“Okay,” he starts. “So I figured that to explain this better it would be helpful to have this.” 

_This_ turns out to be a map that Minho takes out of his backpack. It’s rolled up, like a scroll, but the paper seems shiny and laminated. Minho uses his palms to flatten it down on the table. Then the colors and shapes on the map start moving. 

_Wow,_ Jisung thinks, for lack of a better word. 

The map is centered around a patch of green—the forest—and their town to the east of it, that much Jisung can tell. But scattered throughout the forest are interesting symbols, and they move into positions before slowing coming to a rest. 

“So, this,” Minho points to an area on the outskirts of the west side of the map that’s pointedly more grey than the others. There are five map markers that all have exclamation points (!) plastered to them in the area. “Is the main part of the forest that’s been hurt by the dark spirit—we’ll call it that for now.”

He points to another area. “This is where we were yesterday. This area isn’t affected too much yet.” _Oh,_ Jisung realizes. There’s only one exclamation marker here, so it’s probably relatively less dangerous. He gets goosebumps before he even realizes; if that area was one of the areas that wasn’t hurt so hard, he doesn’t even want to think about how bad the other area is. 

“And this,” his finger moves north a bit to another lone danger marker. “Is the third area. So far, that’s all we’ve come across, and we’re hoping that there aren’t more.”

At the center of the map, there’s a glowing green circle, and it pulses as Minho draws his finger across the map. “What’s that?” Jisung curiously asks. 

“The heart of the forest,” Minho replies, solemn. “If the presence can reach there, that’s it. We’re screwed.”

“What do you mean, we’re screwed?” Jisung doesn’t understand why Minho is so calm about it.

“Well, notice how all of these incidents so far are on the edge of the forest. We don’t know where this _thing_ originated, but we do know that it’s trying to move closer to the center, to the heart. We think that if it can reach there, it’ll be able to break out of the forest as well, and hurt people in town.” 

Yikes. Jisung nods, taking it all in. He knew the situation was scary, but he didn’t expect it to be so serious. _And most of the residents don’t even know this is happening,_ he thinks. _Me included, if the cat had never taken that stupid key._

“So who’s ‘we?’” Jisung asks. 

“Me, Chan, some other people that live around here. And the forest.”

There it is. The forest, always being referred to like a person. 

“Who—what is the forest?” Coming from his mouth, the question sounds rather stupid, but Minho seems to understand nontheless. 

“Okay. Just as there’s all this dark magic going around, the forest has a spirit of its own. And lately it’s been luring us in—Chan and I were one of the first ones. It spoke to us by showing what was hurting it, and it just seemed to click that the forest needed help.”

“So, what? You just trust this weird forest spirit too?” Jisung narrows his eyes. 

“Well, none of us are dead yet, are we? I’m not dead yet.” Minho laughs, and the sound rings like music in his ears, but all Jisung can think about is how reckless all of this is. 

“The forest was the one who transferred some of its magic to us, though, if that makes it more reassuring,” Minho continues. “I was taking you to the heart of the forest the other day before we got stopped. The forest seemed to indicate that it wanted your help too, and so I thought it was going to give you some magic. But we couldn’t get there, so maybe another day. Only when you’re ready to, though,” Minho says, and his gaze is warm, warmer than it should be with someone he’s only known for such a short period of time. Jisung breaks eye contact, and looks at the map. 

“So I was going to be the next recruit? I wonder why the forest picked me, of all people,” Jisung comments. “If not for that cat I wouldn’t have ever stepped foot inside, probably.” 

“About the cat,” Minho laughs, again. And his eyes are elegantly crinkling up at the corners. And Jisung’s distracted. “The cat _was_ the forest’s way of luring you in. I got the key back because I was in the forest a couple days later and the cat literally just dropped it on the ground in front of me. Like it wanted me to give the key back to you and bring you back.”

“Great, so I can’t escape both the forest and you,” Jisung says dryly, rolling his eyes. 

“I think it’s turned out okay, so far,” Minho replies, and well, he’s not wrong. It could be worse, Jisung supposes. At least they’re getting along surprisingly better than he would have thought, considering Jisung’s first impression of Minho was less than welcoming. Speaking of that.

“What were you doing in the forest that one day, then? With the bucket, and the deer…” Jisung blurts out. The question was on the back of his mind, forgotten once Minho pulled out the map, but he’s been dying to know. Although, now he thinks he has an idea.

“Ah, I’d been trying to help out the infested deer,” Minho explains. “Trying to force the dark magic out of their systems and into the bucket.”

“Oh,” Jisung replies. So pretty much the opposite of what Jisung first thought Minho was doing.

Minho has the audacity to almost smirk at him. “I know I may have come off as intimidating at first, but I assure you I’m not.”

Jisung snickers. “Once the forest lends me some magic I’ll be more intimidating than you, assured.” 

“You, with those cheeks? Never,” Minho says, snorting, and Jisung laughs along, purposefully inflating his cheeks with air. 

But wait. They shouldn’t be laughing. Jisung came here to get answers. Well… he did get answers. _Is it so wrong to want to make another friend?_ He asks himself. The answer is no—especially since Minho’s the one who has powers. But two weeks ago, Jisung never wanted to run into Minho again. They just got off to the wrong foot, he supposes. 

“Okay,” Minho starts again, his laughter ceasing. “You’ll probably have to go back into the forest at some point—the sooner the better. But I don’t want to make you do it when you don’t want to, so just let me know when you’re ready to, alright? And hopefully we’ve mapped out all the areas so we shouldn’t run into the dark spirits again.” 

Then Minho’s focus snaps to the door, eyes narrowing. He puts his finger to his lips, signaling Jisung to be quiet. For a while, neither of them move. 

Minho closes his eyes and whispers something under his breath. Jisung wonders if he’s trying to detect something (or someone), but nothing happens. Jisung, back to the door, doesn’t dare turn around. Why would someone be spying on them in the school library? 

Eventually, Minho’s shoulders slump. “Just being paranoid, probably,” he mutters. “I thought I _felt_ something though, like a shift in the air, like someone was trying to listen in…”

“Um, back to the forest, I guess,” Jisung says worriedly, voice a bit quieter than before. Just in case. “If you said you think you’ve mapped the areas we should avoid, then I’m willing to go back. Soon,” Jisung nervously gets out, and tries to sound more confident that he feels. He probably fails, though.

“Yeah, if this were a month ago I would have said it’s not so dangerous. Now I can’t give any reassurances. But if you’re up for it, I was planning to treat some more deer Friday after school. You could come with me and we’d go to the heart of the forest after,” Minho offers.

Jisung takes a deep breath. _If this were a month ago…_ he wouldn’t have ever predicted he’d be going into the forest once, twice, soon thrice. _It’ll be fine,_ he tells himself again. _It will._

“Okay,” Jisung agrees. 

They pack up and Minho rips the scratch paper off the study room door window on the way out. Once they’re back in the main library room, Jisung does notice Minho sneaking glances around, trying to discern whether or not there’s anyone suspicious. Unfortunately, like Jisung, all Minho seems to see are lone students furiously typing up assignments, or groups of kids trying not to laugh too loud or be kicked out of the library. 

“I’ll walk you back to the music shop,” Minho offers once they’re outside. 

“You don’t have to,” Jisung protests, but Minho cuts him off.

“Correction: I won’t. I’ll walk you up to the block before the music shop,” Minho says, seriously. “I just think today it’s best if I do.”

Jisung really wants to insist on walking back himself—what is he, in elementary school?—before he remembers Minho’s suspicions in the study room. Suddenly Jisung’s more than willing to walk back with Minho.

“Sure!” Jisung answers in an overly-cheerful tone, and Minho laughs at his change in demeanor. “But you can’t avoid Chan forever,” Jisung adds. 

“Nope, I can’t,” Minho agrees. “But I’ll avoid him for as long as I want. He really only means the best, but when he’s mad it’s… intense.”

Well, that’s fair. “The way you put it, it sounds like you’re almost more scared of Chan than the evils forest spirits,” Jisung prods anyway, snickering. “And here I thought I was the scaredy-cat of us all.” 

“Han Jisung,” Minho barks out. “If I were you, I wouldn’t talk down to your seniors.” 

“Sorry, sorry,” Jisung laughs, not even remotely apologetic. 

Minho continues to glare at him, and Jisung continues walking with a purposeful spring in his step. When Minho says they’ll have to part ways because he really is avoiding Chan, Jisung childishly sticks out his tongue at him. 

Minho’s unamused look morphs into mock-disgust, before his eyes twinkle with mirth. “See you Friday,” Minho reminds Jisung as he leaves. Then, joking: “I hope you’ll learn some respect by then!”


	4. Chapter 4

_He’s standing on the threshold of the forest. Two glazed pupils stare at him from behind a tree, unblinking. Jisung swallows; he thinks it’s an infected deer, but as the figure steps out from the shadows, he sees Minho instead, surrounded by tendrils of dark fog, dull eyes blazing and face poised in a threatening expression. Jisung can’t move, can’t even speak, as Minho inches closer, closer, closer—_

“Jisung!” There’s a hand on his shoulder, and a worried expression on Felix’s face as he shakes him awake. “You okay?”

They’re the only two ones left in the classroom; the lunch bell probably rang a minute ago. Jisung sucks in his breath and tries to calm down his rapidly beating heart. 

“Yeah,” he offers Felix a smile. “Sorry about that.”

A few days ago, Jisung went with Minho into the forest for a third time, and it was almost unnervingly smooth sailing—they had managed to avoid encountering any of the dark magic patches on the way in. And they had arrived at the heart of the forest, and Jisung had watched, in awe, as it lent Jisung some of its own “magic,” which manifested itself in an interesting form inside of him. Since then, Jisung’s been locking himself up in his room whenever he has the time, trying to understand what the forest gifted him, even though he hasn’t been able to do anything yet. 

But: all in all, though the trip to the forest was easy, it wasn’t so simple as that. 

\---

“Ready?”

Jisung thinks Minho’s holding his hand up for an encouraging high-five before they step into the woods, but the moment his palm makes contact with Minho’s, he feels the other’s fingers slipping between his own, and Minho lets their interlocked hands fall back down, giving them an experimental swing. Minho’s hand is warm and soft, and—well, it does make Jisung feel a lot safer.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” The lilt in Minho’s voice indicates that he’s just teasing, but when Jisung glances to the side he’s met with a genuine, reassuring smile and bright eyes. In Minho’s other hand, his trusty lidded metal bucket thumps against his pants with each step.

“Gee, thanks,” Jisung retorts back, hoping his sarcastic undertone hides the muddled pit of fear and giddiness that threatens to break loose from him.

The trek through the forest is much longer this time, considering they had been stopped prematurely the last time they went through. Minho also stops at a few points to treat some stray deer—where the dark magic manifested in the animals is in its early stages, Minho tells him that it’s easy enough to get the deer’s bodies to chase it out. It’s just the herds of completely infected deer that are posing a larger problem. 

Jisung feels himself melt watching Minho coax the ugly substance out of each deer, watching Minho’s eyes turn kind and gentle like the eyes of an unharmed doe Jisung spots drinking from a stream.

All the while, Minho’s other hand never leaves Jisung’s, like he’s unwilling to risk even the slightest distance between them in the event that something sneaks up on them. Jisung can’t help but feel a warmth in his stomach at this; Minho meticulously looking out for Jisung, someone Minho doesn’t even know very well.

The bucket is almost filled up by the time they arrive, and Jisung wants to ask how Minho’s going to dispose of the soulless spirits inside, but he’s distracted by how spectacular the heart of the forest is. 

They step out from behind a cluster of bushes and into full view of an open expanse of grass, surrounded on its circumference by tall trees whose tops twist inward towards the center. And at the center is the largest plant Jisung’s ever seen. It looks like a gnarly oak tree, but the trunk is really wide and its branches are laden with _life_ —flowers that seem to sparkle and glow under the shaded canopy of the other trees, and birds and squirrels that have made their homes in the shelter of its humongous crown.

Jisung gapes. It is, for lack of a better word, _magical._

And embedded at near the top of the trunk, right before the bark splits into endless branches, lies something, pulsing between hues of green-blue. When Jisung’s eyes fall on it, he knows that _that_ is the heart. 

A cat emerges from the underbrush on the opposite side of the clearing, delicately padding through the grass and flowers until it reaches them. The cat nuzzles its head into the side of Minho’s leg, and Minho bends down to pet it. “Hey, Soonie,” Minho greets the cat, scratching behind its ears. 

Jisung gapes at the sight. It’s The Cat—the orange and white tabby, the key-stealing cat. “You—you—you conspirators! Partners in crime!” He accuses, eyes darting back and forth between Minho and the feline purring beneath his fingers. 

Minho grins at him, his infuriating catlike smile a perfect replica of that of his companion. “What do you mean?” Minho asks, but, of course, Jisung knows that he’s perfectly aware. 

“I thought you said the cat brought the keys back to you because of the forest, or something, I dunno. You never told me that you’re basically friends with this cat. You could have probably helped me get the keys back the day I asked!” Jisung protests, indignantly. 

“Ah, well, I did have my suspicions that Soonie had been the culprit, but I didn’t know for sure. Besides, it’s not like I told her to steal your keys. Really, the forest had been the one plotting it. I may know Soonie well, but the only orders she follows are from the forest itself” Minho replies, blinking innocently up at Jisung. 

“So you’re telling me that all of this is just the—the _forest_ ’s doing,” Jisung narrows his eyes, and Minho’s smirk grows even bigger.

“That’s what I’m saying” Minho says in a singsong voice. “Why don’t you show him, Soonie.”

“Show me what?” 

_Hello, Jisung,_ a silvery voice echoes within his head, and Jisung almost jumps five feet into the air at it. The voice is kind of like music, like the sound of wind chimes with a whispery undercurrent. 

“Holy—” Jisung looks back at Minho, and then back at the cat, who tilts her head and regards Jisung with a very knowing gaze. 

“Uhhhhhhhhhh,” Jisung says. “Is the cat speaking to me?”

 _Soonie._ The voice corrects. Jisung almost leaps out of his shoes again; it’s hard to get used to a voice other than your own in your head. 

“I mean, it’s Soonie in a sense, but it’s more so the forest speaking to you through Soonie,” Minho elaborates. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“Yeah?” Jisung hesitates before responding. The voice laughs, a melodious tinkling that resounds in his head. _It is okay to be honest. It does take most people time to grow used to this_.

Then the cat slips through Minho’s fingers to rub against Jisung’s ankles, and Jisung can’t help the “awww,” that leaves his mouth. 

“Dude, can all the animals speak like this?” Jisung asks. 

“I mean, yes, but it is mostly the forest using the animals as vessels to speak to us. It’s like, the cat’s words but sometimes the forest’s words too. The forest isn’t really all-knowing, so it can’t hear your thoughts, but the only way it can speak to you is in your head. Kinda confusing, but you get used to it,” Minho responds, leaning down again to card his fingers through Soonie’s fur. 

She darts out of Minho’s grasp again.

“See what I mean? She doesn’t obey anyone but the forest,” Minho chuckles, but Jisung can tell by the way Minho fondly watches Soonie that he definitely harbors a soft spot for the cat. 

Soonie nudges Jisung from behind, softly at first, until Jisung is practically being headbutted by the cat. “Woah, chill,” he says, but Soonie is very persistent at pushing Jisung towards the large tree at the center of the expanse. 

Minho doesn’t even attempt to stop Soonie as she pushes Jisung closer and closer to the glowing forest heart, just laughs at him, much to Jisung’s annoyance. “I think she’s just reminding us of what we came here for.” 

Right. Jisung almost forgot. 

“So what do I do?” he asks, once Soonie has finally relented in her prodding. 

Up close, the tree is majestic, trunk alight with a sheen of emerald-teal that reflects the glowing heart at the tree’s center. On the lower branches white flowers are blossoming, luminescence dancing on open petals. A butterfly lands on one of the flowers, and its brilliant yellow wings remind Jisung of the sun, even though the entire forest clearing is in the shade. This place radiates with life, healthy and pulsing and beautiful. Jisung suddenly isn’t so scared anymore.

“Okay, I know this is going to sound weird, but you’re going to have to put your hands against the heart. It’s the only way for the forest to directly transfer some magic to you,” Minho explains.

Jisung gulps and takes another step forward. He’s not scared of the tree, per say, but scared of _scaring away_ all the life that’s bursting from it—the birds roosting higher up and the squirrels and the butterflies and everything that seems to call it home.

 _Do not be afraid,_ the forest tells him. _I would not have wanted you here if I did not deem you worthy of this power. Now, you must trust me in return._

Strangely enough, the universe tells Jisung that he does trust this supernatural being. 

He places his palms delicately against the large heart. It thrums against him, a beating drum against the melody of the forest’s voice. 

_Now close your eyes._

Jisung glances back at Minho. Somehow, he’s managed to tame Soonie enough to hold her curled-up frame in his arms, and both of them give Jisung comforting smiles. 

So Jisung turns back and lets his eyes fall shut, the heart of the forest pounding with his own. There’s a pause, and then a second later the blackness behind his eyelids is overflowing with an influx of color. It’s mostly warm shades of red, orange, and yellow, and it’s like Jisung is being filled up by the sun or like a fire is being ignited in him except it doesn’t burn. 

Eventually, the colors fade, and Jisung blinks his eyes open again, gently removing his hands from the tree. 

_You have a kind and honest soul,_ the forest tells him. _The magic that I bestowed upon you is what the forest needs right now._

“What’s the magic?” Jisung asks. 

_I shall let you discover it on your own. But do not misuse your magic. I am forever indebted to you for helping me cleanse the forest of the dark spirits, but if you exploit such power understand that you are never welcome here again._

“Thank _you_ ,” Jisung says in return. Honestly, he feels like he just entered another realm, but in a good way, like his head is clear and his fears are momentarily absent. 

He takes a step back, and watches, eyes wide, as a flower by his foot slowly unfurls its petals into bloom. Another step, and the grass seems to part for him. When he lifts his foot, the grass fills the spot again, springing up and moving to the slight breeze. He hears a silvery laugh in his head, and knows that this is the forest’s doing. 

Soonie slinks back off into the depths of the forest and Minho comes up beside him, linking their hands together again. “Interesting experience, huh?” he asks. “All this is pretty amazing, actually.”

For a while, they just stand there, soaking in the life in the clearing. 

Finally, though, Minho clears his throat. “Time to head back.” 

They leave the forest in a comfortable silence. Really, the Jisung after receiving magic doesn’t feel _that_ much different from the Jisung before receiving magic. But the forest did say he’d discover what he could do on his own time, so he’d find out soon enough. Like… an awakening, or something.

Actually, the atmosphere between him and Minho feels a bit changed, too, and Jisung can sense that they’ve gotten closer, maybe through their mutual appreciation of nature from today. Jisung isn’t opposed to the thought anymore. If he can embrace the idea of magic, he can also embrace the idea of another friend in his life. 

After they pick up their belongings from school, Minho insists on walking Jisung home, even more so when he finds out that they live in the same area. So yeah, Jisung could get used to this, could get used to a smiling Minho adorably waving him goodbye as he stands on the sidewalk in front of Jisung’s house, hair golden and eyes shining against the sunset.

\---

Maybe he’s trying too hard. 

After Jisung got back home yesterday, he’s been trying to figure out what exactly the forest bestowed upon him, and would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little bit impatient. He’s tried channeling his thoughts into camouflaging like Minho, or (with a sudden burst of inspiration from childhood cartoons) making magical things come out of his hands. Nothing happens, though. Once, Jisung thinks the potted plant on his windowsill seems to perk up when he enters the room, but chalks it up to being tired, since it’s past midnight. It’s okay, though, he reassures himself, because tomorrow’s Sunday and he can sleep in all he wants. He’s kind of just desperate for _something,_ even a tiny response so that he’s not kept in the dark with this. 

Jisung hopes he’s not being too selfish. It’s just—he needs to know what he can do so that he can actually help the forest.

Minho texted him at night yesterday, and in typical cryptic Minho fashion, refused to tell Jisung how he got his number. 

Jisung soon finds out, though, when Minho adds him to a group chat with Chan, Changbin, and a name Jisung only vaguely recognizes—Seungmin—in it. The chat, titled “Green Forest Supreme,” elicits a laugh from Jisung. He realizes this is a chat of everyone the forest has enlisted for help so far, until he has a second realization that he’s been betrayed yet again:

Chan basically runs the music shop, but Changbin’s practically a co-owner at this point. So imagine Jisung’s surprise when he realizes that not only is Chan working with the forest but that Changbin is too. Jisung understands the secrecy, but Jisung is also a bit petty:

 _Jisung changed the nickname for_ **_spearbeannnn_ ** _to_ **_bin of trash_**. 

**bin of trash**

>Lol Jisung

>Stop sulking, if you were in this situation would you tell us?

**JISUNGGGG**

obviously<

okay that was a lie. maybe not?<

 _Jisung changed the nickname for_ **_bin of trash_ ** _to_ **_spearbean._ **

**JISUNGGGG**

since i’m a nice person, there you go.<

Jisung cackles to himself. He really is a nice person at heart. 

Meanwhile, he gets notifications from the group chat, which lets him know that they’re planning to meet up on Tuesday after school, at the music shop, to discuss how to deal with the dark magic’s rapid spread. Jisung learns that these meetings always take place at the music store, and that he’s somehow been oblivious to them before. Well, it’s not like he was on the lookout for Mysterious Meetings. Although, when he racks his brain really hard about it, he can maybe recall a taller kid his age, presumably Seungmin, as well as Minho entering the shop a couple times and going towards the back room. 

Minho also texts Jisung, sending him a picture of a cat that looks similar but isn’t Soonie. 

**Minho**

> _sent an image_

>Since you seem to enjoy cats conspiring against you

>This is Doongie, my actual cat. 

>Don’t worry, she can’t speak to you in your head.

**Jisung**

wow, thanks.<

she’s rlly cute tho!<

Doongie truly is cute, a bundle of fur sprawled out on a pile of blankets, regarding the camera with a bleary look. Then Minho sends another photo of her snarling at the lens and Jisung holds back a giggle, which quickly turns unamused at Minho’s follow-up text:

**Minho**

> _sent an image_

>Her expression reminds me of how betrayed you looked with Soonie earlier.

And because Jisung is a bit petty, he leaves Minho on read. 

\---

Despite their last trip to the forest being far more of a carefree experience, Jisung is still haunted by their run-ins with the deer and the darkness that inhabits many of them.

Each night, Jisung has been unable to fall asleep, the vivid image of penetrating lackluster eyes burning into his consciousness. When he does eventually knock out, he dreams of the deer chasing him until he wakes up, sweating. And his lack of a good night’s sleep has left him almost drifting off in class, until earlier today he hadn’t been able to fight his eyelids growing heavier as the end of fourth period neared. He tells himself it won’t happen again, or else Felix is going to worry about him and Jisung is kind of sworn to secrecy about the whole ordeal. 

Later that night, though, Jisung falls asleep with his phone almost falling on his face, because Minho sends him another picture of Doongie and he ends up talking to Jisung about her until it’s definitely past Jisung’s bedtime. The last thought Jisung has before he drifts off is _I hope I can finally get a good night’s sleep._

Well. 

The nightmare goes a bit differently this time.

_He’s standing on the threshold of the forest. Two glazed pupils stare at him from behind a tree, unblinking. Jisung swallows._

_“Minho, is that you?” he calls out, because even in this state he’s somehow aware that Minho was the one behind the tree in all his previous dreams._

_But as the figure steps out from the shadows, he sees the actual deer instead, and it’s so much scarier. As usual, there are tendrils of dark fog swimming all around it, but its vacant eyes bore deep into Jisung’s soul, searching for a crack for the darkness to root itself in. Jisung can’t move, can’t even speak, as the deer inches closer, closer, closer—_

_“Stop,” Jisung cries out, and in his panic grabs the deer’s snout and tries to push it away._

_Strangely enough, the deer halts, eyes muddled with confusion. Jisung looks at where his hands are cupping the deer and watches while the smoke seems to be evading him. His fingertips are sending streaks of light that chase off the darkness. The deer’s eyes fade back to a warm brown, and the remaining shadowy wisps evaporate._

_“Thank you,” the deer tells him. Jisung is about to remove his hands when—_

He blinks his eyes open to the alarm beeping at his bedside. But when he finally realizes what’s happening, he does a double-take.

Jisung’s laying on his back, and his arms are poised straight up, and he’s gripping his squirrel plushie so that it looms over his face. Jisung snorts—so in the dream he was touching the deer when he was really just gripping onto his stuffed squirrel for dear life.

But the stuffed animal is radiating a glow where his hands are wrapped around it, the light not unlike what Jisung had been emitting in his dream. Jisung drops the plushie onto the bed, and it returns to normal. 

Sitting up, Jisung moves to turn off his alarm, but as he does the alarm glows momentarily when his hands come into contact with it. 

Weird, weird, weird. Jisung doesn’t know what his hands are supposed to be doing but he thinks it has something to do with forest magic, and he thinks it was probably triggered by his nightmares. 

Obviously there has to be a reason for the light emanating from his hands, because he knows the forest wouldn’t have him spout out light just for the sake of it. So even though he has to get ready for school soon Jisung runs his hands over everything in his room, looking for some sort of a reaction. 

His fingertips scrape the flowerpot on his windowsill, and suddenly the one dying leaf that had been drooping at the bottom of the plant shoots back up, a verdant green color returning to it.

Jisung stares at his fingertips. The glow is fading now, maybe he’s reached his limit? But, experimentally, while a bit of light still lingers, Jisung shoots downstairs, ignoring his mother’s strange looks, and darts out the front door, pressing his palm down against a patch of grass on their front lawn. Jisung knows he isn’t imagining it when he removes his hand and the grass springs up, a bit taller than before. 

Wow. 

Running back upstairs to his room, Jisung scrambles to his phone and navigates to the Green Forest Supreme chat. The keyboard is slightly brighter under his fingers as he types.

**Jisung**

ajfksj;fjsnf<

i figured out what i can do!!!!!<

**Chan**

>Good morning

>So… what is it?

**Jisung**

you’ll see later hehehe<

payback for you guys for not telling me anything before<

**Changbin**

>I can’t believe you’re still upset about this

**Minho**

>Lol, right?

**Seungmin**

>Well then see you all later after school!

Since they’re all meeting up today, Jisung can finally see Seungmin, the only one of them that he hasn't been acquainted with yet. He’s pretty sure Seungmin goes to their high school, though.

Jisung wiggles his fingertips excitedly, leaving the last few remnants of light to dissipate into the air. _Forest saving, here I come!_

It’s both a scary and exhilarating thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forest saving, here we come :)))


	5. Chapter 5

If Jisung’s fingers were fidgety before, they’re restless now, tapping his pencil, his books, and anything else he picks up. He’s a bit scared that they’ll start emitting light in the middle of class, but he thinks that it would take a conscious effort to make them actually do that. 

Actually, Jisung had been secretly experimenting with certain thoughts during passing periods and lunch, and he’s learned that magic won’t do anything when it comes to himself. Well, self-healing is out of the question because it would be awfully unfair to be invincible, although Jisung might have grinned if he could have at least made himself grow even just a centimeter taller. 

But if he managed to make some split pencil lead morph back into one long usable piece, and if a particularly ugly and thorny weed in the school courtyard just nearly doubled in size, Jisung won’t say anything about it. And after each endeavor he had been quicker at getting the light to stop coming out of his fingertips—avoiding suspicious glances from other students was a pretty good motive for it. (He’s still trying not to snicker at the thought of the magnified weed as he packs up.)

He’s toying with his backpack strings on the way out, but he has to shove his hands in front of his face to instinctively protect himself when Minho unexpectedly jumps out at him as he exits sixth period.

“Forgot about me, eh?” Minho wiggles his eyebrows in a way that makes him look quite ridiculous, but Jisung is a nice person, and refrains from saying that to Minho’s face. Also because Minho still somehow manages to look just a bit attractive despite his funny expression.

“Definitely not, I just thought you had left already. Obviously I didn’t expect to get accosted in the hallways!” Jisung shoots Minho a glare as they head outside, a mild breeze leaving Jisung’s long, pulled-out backpack strings swaying side-to-side and brushing against his pants. Jisung resists the urge to take them up and fidget with them again, pushing his hands in his jacket pockets instead.

“Hey, I’d call that a gentle surprise,” Minho says in a very-not-serious tone. “Anyway, you seemed really enthusiastic in the morning. Since we’re heading to the music store now, do you think you could let me in on your secret beforehand?” 

“Absolutely...not.” Jisung watches Minho’s expectant look drop as he finishes his reply, but that quickly changes when Minho’s lips curl up in amusement as he speaks. 

“You think you’re funny, don’t you.” It’s not a question, rather just something thrown out to prod Jisung. He’s not going to take the bait. 

“I do! So just wait and see, and try to be patient for another five minutes,” Jisung says coolly, but can’t resist the slight skip in his step as they walk down the street. 

He hears footsteps catching up behind him and then suddenly he’s jerked back by a sharp tug to his backpack. He turns to shoot Minho the stink-eye, though his expression can’t help but soften when he’s met with Minho’s cheeky smile as they fall in step again. 

“I’m kind of an impatient person, but I’ll let you off this time because it really will only be a couple minutes, now,” Minho sing-songs, eyes bright and smile lively and hair ruffled slightly from the gentle wind. Jisung almost wants to drink the sight in, but forces himself to look away because he really shouldn't be looking at someone he met a few weeks ago like  _ that _ . 

To be fair, Jisung wants to say that Minho has gotten awfully comfortable in his life considering the circumstances they met in, but he also enjoys their carefree banter too much to disrupt it. Even if his heart does have yet to calm down after Minho yanked him back, and after Minho flashed Jisung another genuine smile. Right. Focus. Not on Minho’s face. 

In front of them, a squirrel darts across the road before disappearing up the foliage of one of the numerous birch trees that line the town’s storefront. Jisung has an epiphany that he could probably communicate with all of the stray squirrels and birds and cats he’s met, if the forest helped provide for it. He thinks of all the times the cats that occasionally frequent his backyard have given him strange or wary looks and wonders what they were trying to say. 

He’s interrupted in his thoughts when Minho speaks up. 

“Hey, Jisung?” 

“Huh?” Jisung glances to the side, but Minho’s concentrated somewhere else, too focused looking above Jisung’s eyes to meet them. His arm reaches up to…  _ pat? _ ... Jisung’s hair. Jisung wants to protest but his breath is caught in his throat for a moment. There’s the distinctive feeling of Minho’s fingers carding through his hair, though when he brings his hand down he’s pinching a small leaf between his fingers.

“How’d you get a leaf stuck in your hair?” Minho asks, chuckling. 

Jisung stares at the leaf, dumbly. It’s just so… random.

By now, Minho’s eyes have become half-crescents as Jisung looks between him and the yellowing leaf. Giggling, Minho wiggles the leaf in front of Jisung’s face to get a response. 

“It probably just fell in my hair somehow, it’s not even funny,” Jisung finally says, whining. He snatches the leaf from Minho’s fingers and pretends to stick it in Minho’s hair, for revenge. As his fingers poke Minho’s head, he lets the leaf fall hidden into his sleeve instead, satisfied. 

“Minho, how’d you get a leaf stuck in your hair?” Jisung teases. 

“Hey! Stop that,” Minho’s hand automatically paws around at his hair as he tries to find the leaf. But he won’t find it, because Jisung lets the leaf fall back out of his sleeve and waves it in Minho’s face. 

“Gotcha,” Jisung says, grinning lopsidedly. “Now  _ leaf _ me alone.”

Minho visibly cringes at that, but the tips of his ears are red as he replies. “Wow, I was just helping you. You could have been walking around with a leaf in your hair for the rest of the day if I didn’t say anything. Instead of telling me to ‘leaf’ you alone—” at that, Minho’s hands form air-quotes, “you should be thanking me for saving you some embarrassment.” He blinks one, two, three times, nonchalantly but clearly expectant, if the eyebrow he’s raising is anything to go by. 

Jisung sighs dramatically. “Ah yes, thank you so much, Minho. I shall never forget this act of kindness.” 

Minho grins despite clearly trying not to, and he pulls the door open for Jisung as they arrive, gesturing for Jisung to enter first with a fancy swish of his hand. “You’re welcome!” Minho replies in an exaggeratedly chirpy voice.

The familiar bell-tones jingle as Jisung and Minho enter the music shop. Jeongin’s at the counter—Chan or Changbin probably stuck him there so that they’d still have an employee out front as they talked in the backrooms. Jeongin offers him a toothy grin that puts his braces on full display, and Jisung grings back. Jeongin’s a sophomore, but it doesn’t matter because he works hard and he’s super friendly with customers. And that’s pretty much all they need at the music shop.

They head down the hallway to the practice rooms, peeking through the doors before they come across Chan and Changbin sat at the largest one in back. A small table has been placed inside in lieu of the usual music stands, which have been folded up and placed against the walls. Jisung and Minho dump their backpacks and Jisung flops down in an empty plastic chair. 

“Hello!” Jisung greets brightly; he can’t really help it because he knows the rest of the group is just  _ so _ excited to have him as an addition now. As for him, he feels excitement and apprehension all mixed together at finally being a part of his friends’ magic group.

Changbin grunts at him in acknowledgement. Chan looks like he’s about to say something snarky but settles for a “Good afternoon, Jisung. And you too, Minho.” 

“Where’s Seungmin?” Jisung asks. 

“He’ll probably be here soon. Be patient _ ,  _ am I right?” Minho jokes. He pulls the map that Jisung had seen last time out of his backpack and unrolls it onto the table. Jisung still finds himself enraptured as the map changes in real-time. He notices that whereas there were three dark spots mapped out before that there’s now a fourth one, one that evidently just sprung up because it’s closer to the town. The other dark areas look even bigger, too. 

Changbin also seems to notice, frowning. “The dark patches got even worse. It’s spreading faster than we thought it would.”

“Yeah.” Chan grimaces. “Actually, I was just talking with the forest and it said we’re going to have to do something about this patch really soon.” He points to what’s by-far the largest infested area, with now six exclamation points. Jisung remembers that last time it had five, and although he’s not quite sure how they measure things he knows it’s pretty serious.

“You can talk with the forest? Here?” Jisung asks. 

Chan nods. “It’s the ‘power,’ the forest gave me, so to speak. It doesn’t matter where I am, and I don’t have to communicate with the forest through the animals as a medium. I can just talk to it directly, as the forest’s self-appointed messenger, I guess.” 

“Woah. So unlimited telepathy.” 

“You can put it that way, I guess,” Chan chuckles. “And speaking of powers, don’t you have an announcement to make?” He raises a pointed eyebrow at Jisung. 

“Oh, yeah!” Jisung makes a show of twining his two hands together, and stretching them in front of himself as far as his arms can go. “Actually, I also wanted to confirm a suspicion. Does anyone have any small cuts or bruises they recently got?” 

“A papercut on my finger from when I was putting out new sheet music earlier,” Chan laughs, sticking his hand out over the table to show it—just a tiny slit on the tip of his ring finger. “That work?” 

“Yessir!” Jisung replies, taking Chan’s hand in his own and pressing his thumb lightly over the cut. “Gather ‘round, folks,” he says, earning an eye roll but Changbin and Minho move closer nonetheless.

From what Jisung’s seen so far, his powers might not work on himself, but should be able to work on others. Sure enough, Jisung thinks hard enough that the skin slowly seals itself, the faint red line fading back to nothing. 

Jisung punches the air in victory, light dissolving in the air as he does. Almost as soon as his hand comes back down, he feels a short bout of lightheadedness. It only lasts a few seconds, but it’s enough to make Jisung realize that performing magic on humans might come with more repercussions. (Somehow, making those real, live plants have growth spurts didn’t do anything, but real, live humans are a lot more complex).

“You okay?” Changbin asks as Jisung blinks away the fuzziness at the corner of his vision. 

“Yeah. Just didn’t expect that to happen. It really was only a small cut, and that didn’t happen earlier when I used my magic on the plants,” Jisung says. “Anyway. But now you know! I’m Jisung, your resident healer!” He tacks on a dramatic flourish of his hands and bows—or, as much as he can bow while sitting down and without hitting his head on the table. Minho stifles a snicker, and Changbin’s probably unamused as ever but he must be humoring Jisung because he cracks a smile. 

But even though Chan’s finger is as good as new, he looks a bit worse for wear. “Healer, huh?” he muses. “So the forest really isn’t kidding around…”

“What do you mean?” Jisung asks, though at that moment the door opens and a boy—this must be Seungmin—with fluffy brown hair and round glasses steps inside. Now that Jisung has a face to match the name, he thinks he’s seen Seungmin around school quite a bit. An officer in the student council, possibly?

“Sorry I was late, got a bit held up talking to one of the teachers after school,” Seungmin apologizes, setting his backpack down as he takes up the last empty chair in the room.

Changbin looks like he wants to say something, but Seungmin turns to Jisung. “I’m Seungmin, it’s nice to finally properly meet you,” he says politely. 

“Same here!” Jisung says back, cheerfully. “I hope we’ll become good friends,” he adds, because he really does. 

“Now that everyone’s here, should we just have you guys introduce yourselves really quick?” Chan says, because he is a responsible college student and understands that when it comes to the forest, they’re running on less time then they think. Why the forest decided it was a good idea to have teenagers fight off dark magic is a question that Chan doesn’t have an answer too, though.

That’s how Jisung learns that Seungmin has the interesting power of creating illusions, and that Changbin has an increased sense of perception when it comes to hearing and sight. Jisung already knows Minho can camouflage, but Minho adds that it’s not quite invisibility because he can only mostly do it when he’s staying still, and that camouflaging while moving takes a lot of effort. And Chan is the “forest’s messenger,” as he explained earlier. 

But when Jisung tell’s Seungmin he’s sort-of a healer, he’s met with another grim expression not unlike the one that had appeared on Chan’s face earlier.

“So, uh, evidently there’s something you guys aren’t saying. Why’s healing so bad?” Jisung finally asks. 

“It’s not so much healing that’s bad, but the implications of it,” Changbin says, slowly. “Although, we all had a sense this was coming. Having a healer really just confirms it.”

“And…what are the implications?” Jisung looks between the other four faces. Nobody looks upset, exactly, but nobody’s grinning, either. 

“Okay, I  _ was _ just talking to the forest about this, so I shouldn’t be surprised. At this point, we’d actually have to go in and directly fight the dark magic. The forest is probably assuming some injuries might happen, and that’s why it appointed a designated healer. And we all knew things were serious, and this was only a matter of time,” Chan says. “There’s also the question of  _ why us? _ Which we don’t really have an answer to. Though we do know that if we don’t do anything then this dark magic really will eventually overrun the forest, and possibly escape the boundaries and start edging into town. That’s the even scarier part. That other people—our friends even—could be harmed. It’s already hard enough to look at the infested deer and not feel pity, or sympathy, or a desire to help them.”

“Oh.” It’s all Jisung can say to Chan’s long response. The somber mood has definitely gotten to him now; while his magic may be fun to use, he was given it for a purpose, and that purpose is by far less fun and games. 

“So that’s why we’re meeting here to discuss a plan!” Changbin uses his high-pitched voice in an attempt to brighten the mood, but everyone, Chan especially, still looks weary. 

“Right. The forest is telling me that we have to clear the biggest patch as soon as possible,” Chan says. “That’s where the infested deer tend to hang around the most and that’s where the magic is spreading the quickest.”

“Shouldn’t we start with a small area so that we can better gauge what we’re up against, though?” Seungmin argues, and he does have a point. “None of us have really ‘fought’ this dark magic before, so if we directly run right into the worst of it that could be… dangerous.”

“Not only that, but none of our powers are really offensive. And regardless of that, how would we even  _ fight _ the magic?” Minho adds. 

“I suspect Jisung’s healing might play a role,” Chan replies. “Sort of like healing but instead purging the dark magic from the deer. As we know, the magic can’t really survive or spread if it can’t find a body to bury itself into.”

“Maybe for like, one deer,” Jisung says. “I think my energy is pretty limited when it comes to this, so I doubt that idea would work very well.”

“I’d hate to suggest this, but… if you killed the deer, theoretically you might kill the magic as well?” Seungmin says matter-of-factly. “Probably as more of a last resort though.”

“How… how do we know the deer aren’t already dead and beyond rescuing? How do we know the magic didn’t just kill the deer anyway, so that it could inhabit the deer bodies?” Jisung asks. 

“Actually, we don’t.” Chan frowns. “So yes, Seungmin,  _ theoretically _ , we could just kill the deer if that’s the case. No amount of magic will really bring the dead back to life.”

“That’s really trippy,” Changbin comments. “If the deer are dead and they’re just carcasses for the magic then can we even kill them? Seems like we’d have to moreso destroy their actual bodies,” he muses. Jisung shivers at that thought. 

“And there’s also stages of infection—like, Jisung, you saw me helping some deer. I could help them because the magic hadn’t taken much control of their bodies yet, so it was easy enough to get them to fight it back out of their systems,” Minho explains.

“Yeah, we’ll definitely have to think about that. Meanwhile, Jisung, don’t sell yourself short. It’s possible that you could definitely do a lot with some practice,” Chan says. 

“If that’s the case, I was thinking perhaps getting the infected animals in an environment that they’re not normally in. Where the magic is less likely to survive. Maybe a squirrel or deer would enjoy a swim?” Seungmin suggests. “Lure them into a river nearby?”

Changbin snorts. “It does sound a bit absurd but it could work.”

Chan opens his mouth to reply before he pauses midway. “Uh, forest has some input,” he says. There’s a moment of long silence where it looks like Chan’s going to fall asleep but he blinks his eyes open, just as alert as before. 

“So,” Minho prompts. “What’s the news?”

Chan sighs. “It’s kinda risky but the forest has its own magic too right? If we get the magic close to the heart of the forest then the forest itself would be able to attack it...but we’d have to make sure the heart’s protected at all times and that the magic doesn’t start spreading right there either.” 

“Sorry, one more question,” Jisung says, because the thought had just occurred to him. “What do we do about all the plants and flowers that turned dark and grey because of the magic?”

“Beyond saving,” Minho replies grimly. “Stuff like grass and flowers has a shorter lifespan so the dark magic wouldn’t be able to survive there for long anyway. And so far the magic hasn’t been able to get into any trees yet—which have a far longer lifespan. The trees can’t move, though, so the only way the magic can really spread is through the animals. Pretty sure the dead-looking grass is for the infected deer to feed on.”

“Actually, here’s an idea,” Changbin says. “Well, this might at least help determine how we’d get rid of the dark magic.”

“Sure; anything is something, right?” Chan replies.

“Okay. So we know that the magic can’t really survive outside of a living vessel, but we know it can a little bit, because of the creepy dark atmosphere all these infected glades have,” Changbin says. “Obviously that’s just dark remnants lingering around the air—it’s there because all the infected animals and plants are too. So what if we tried tricking the magic out of the deer?”

“I think I see where you’re going,” Seungmin answers. “I could try creating an illusion of another deer or… maybe even one of us? That would probably be more tempting for the magic.”

“Do you think you could create an illusion at that level yet?” Chan asks. “It has to be as realistic as possible.”

“I...don’t know. But I’ve been practicing a lot and I think eventually I can,” Seungmin replies. 

“So...assuming you could create an illusion, once the magic leaves the deer’s body it would realize pretty quickly that there’s nothing there,” Minho points out. 

“Exactly. So you guys will grab the deer as soon as the magic leaves, so that it doesn’t have a body to return to,” Seungmin says. 

“And then...what?” Jisung asks.

“I think after that really the only choice is to run,” Changbin chuckles dryly. “Get ourselves out of the forest, and if we try it on just one completly infected deer first we’ll be able to see if the animals are alive after the magic leaves them.” 

“It’s...definitely an idea. How about we all think about the best way to execute it—like a plan of action—so that we don’t put any of us in danger, Seungmin, you in particular, if you have to be closeby to cast the illusion,” Chan says. “I think it’s a good starting point. And then once we try this, we can start to figure out what to do from there.”

“Okay, I’ll create a document and share it to the chat. We can delegate roles and add to the plan there, and then we can meet up once more before we head in?” Seungmin points to the smallest patch of darkness on the map. “Maybe we’ll try this area. It’s closer to the town and it’s a smaller area so we’d have the best chances here.”

Chan nods. “Alright. I think we should do it sooner than later, so is everyone good with Friday after school? We’ll meet up here and head to the woods. And don’t forget to get a lot of practice in before then. Meeting adjourned?” 

“Meeting adjourned,” Minho agrees. “Friday it is, then.”

They split ways, but Chan and Jisung stay in the music shop. Chan, because he practically lives here by this point, and just studies for classes and works on songs in the practice room even if it’s not his shift, and Jisung because he  _ is  _ working the evening shift and it’s fairly pointless to go home and come back. Jisung flops down besides Jeongin behind the counter, taking the corner seat, and pulls out his math book, sighing at it dejectedly. Jeongin starts talking to a customer interested in buying guitar picks when Jisung labels his homework and is writing down the first problem.

There’s a tap to his shoulder.

Jisung lets out a small shriek as he looks up, coming face-to-face with a grinning Minho. “Thanks for scaring me—I thought you left already,” Jisung complains. 

“Nope, had to use the bathroom,” Minho says, watching in amusement as Jisung regards him with a disgusted look. 

“That’s TMI… really didn’t have to say that,” Jisung plants his face into his textbook, breathing in math problems. Unfortunately, that won’t make him any better at calculus. 

“Oh, don’t worry, I know,” Minho says with that annoying tone of voice, and Jisung refuses to look up in acknowledgement. He’ll drown in the math book instead.

Then Minho leans in and Jisung can feel his breath against his ear. “But I just thought I should let you know that there’s a leaf in your hair,” he murmurs in a low voice.

Jisung makes a startled noise as he whips his head up, reaching for his hair. He’s mostly startled because  _ Minho _ ; regarding Minho’s words, Jisung’s not entirely gullible, and he’s definitely not going to fall for his own trick. He performs a few more perfunctory pats to his hair, confirming his suspicions. There is no leaf. Couldn’t be, when he never felt Minho even touch his hair to stick one in.

“Bye, Minho,” Jisung says cheerfully, ignoring Minho’s infuriating grin. He prays that his cheeks aren’t pink because he can still feel the tickle of Minho’s hot breath in his ear. And oh no, he hopes his ears aren’t red, too. “Thanks for stopping by Miroh Music. Now if you would kindly leave, and feel free to not come back!” 

“Doesn’t matter, I’ll see you tomorrow in class anyway.” Minho winks at him. It’s ridiculous, but now Jisung swears his cheeks really are threatening to flare up. He makes a point of looking back down at his calculus homework. 

Jisung hears the usual bell-tones as the door swings shut, but this time it’s accompanied by Minho’s mellifluous laughter. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're sticking with me, hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'm trying to develop minsung's relationship as naturally as possible, but it also might be a bit slow, so lmk what you think (any feedback is appreciated!)  
> Have a great day everyone!


	6. Chapter 6

**[CHAT] Green Forest Supreme**

**Seungmin**

>sent a link: [untitled document]

>It’s blank for now but I’ll start writing plans for friday

>Feel free to add stuff to it, any insight helps!

**Chan**

>Thanks Seungmin!

**Changbin**

>at least give the document a title, though

**Jisung**

wowowow, a super secret document<

very confidential<

better give it a misleading title in case someone else somehow<

gets their hands on it!

**Seungmin**

>I doubt that’s necessary. 

>Besides, it’s only shared to your guys’ emails

>so unless one of you gives away your account

**Minho**

>Are you insinuating something…

**Seungmin**

>heh I would never

**Jisung**

wait, when did I even give you my email address o.O<

**Seungmin**

>Never!

**Chan**

>Before you start freaking out, I gave it to him… 

>Anyway, if you think of something outside of what we discussed

today, do add it to the document

>And keep this chat relatively spam-free, thanks

\---

Friday after school arrives sooner than Jisung had expected. Though, maybe it’s because he has a lot to occupy himself with during the week.

After the meeting Tuesday, Jisung devises a plan to improve his abilities and it involves using Felix for purposes that Felix is supposed to remain unaware of.

Well, it goes like this: Felix works at the local animal shelter, so Jisung figures it would be a good place to hone his healing. Conveniently, Felix mentioned that they just got a batch of stray kittens, so it would be a good place to help with some cuts or bruises that they might have. 

It’s a good idea in theory, but it doesn’t really work out exactly as planned.

It starts out fine; Jisung’s request to go with Felix to the animal shelter after school on Wednesday is innocuous enough, especially when Jisung’s come over many times before and they’re both aware of how much he loves animals. 

Though it’s a bit hard to subtly try healing wounds, especially when Jisung’s not very experienced. At first, he tries really hard on a lonely kitten that seems to have a small but deep gash up one of its forelegs. It almost makes him faint on the spot, and once Jisung recovers from the dizziness he wraps the bandages back around where the cut was so that his work’s concealed. Then he frantically sticks his hands in his pockets to hide the residual glow his fingertips are emitting until he’s able to will the light to fade. He looks around for another patient, but the problem is that if the cats have any small cuts they’re hard to find under all their fur, and any other big wounds would be far too conspicuous. Jisung resorts to just playing with the animals instead, taking one of the dogs out into the park behind the animal shelter to play fetch. 

During lunch the next day Felix brings it up so offhandedly that Jisung’s not sure what Felix thinks.

“So,” Felix begins, bringing a bite of the cafeteria pasta to his mouth. “It’s the weirdest thing,” Felix mutters. “I could have sworn one of the cats had a decent-sized cut up their leg but when I replaced the bandages yesterday evening I couldn’t even find a trace of it. It really is weird. I thought I confused her for her sister for a moment.”

“Yeah… strange, huh…” Jisung laughs nervously. He desperately needs more practice though—they’re going to run their plan tomorrow, after all.

“Wait…” Directly across the lunch table, Felix suddenly narrows his eyes at Jisung. “Weren’t you playing with her yesterday? The striped grey kitten, about this big?” he gestures with his hands for a size comparison. 

“I, uh, yeah I guess,” Jisung says, hoping his face doesn’t give away anything. Felix is too good of a friend, too nice and too kind and Jisung already feels bad for keeping a secret from him. 

“And you didn’t see anything strange?”

“No…?” Jisung tries to figure out how to smoothly change the subject when Felix’s eyes widen as his attention is drawn to something behind Jisung.

Jisung is thankful for the diversion. He’s not so thankful when a leg slides into the bench next to him, and he comes face-to-face with Minho. 

“Uh….” Jisung flails for a response again, though for a different reason this time. Felix looks between the two, quite curiously. 

“Mind if I sit here for a moment? The lunch bell’s going to ring in a few minutes anyway,” Minho asks. 

“You already sat down,” Jisung points out, and Minho just laughs like he’s fully aware. Felix opens his mouth to say something, then shuts it and takes another bite of pasta. 

“Chan mentioned you were having trouble finding ways to practice your healing,” Minho leans in to whisper in Jisung’s ear. 

“What? How does Chan even know that?” Jisung sputters, a bit loudly too, and Felix looks more intrigued than ever. 

Minho shrugs, then proceeds to whisper into Jisung’s ear again. “I dunno. He communicates with the forest spirit and everything, so sometimes he just knows way more than we forget he does.”

And the animal shelter is in no way connected to the forest, but sure. Jisung supposes having his powers leads to an intrinsic connection regardless.

“Anyway,” Minho whispers (Jisung is going to look so suspicious to Felix, but for a different reason now—fantastic). “Anyway, Chan also says you’re being dumb. Just go practice in the forest today. Go to the outskirts, where it’s safer. Chan says he’ll excuse you from your shift today at the music shop today too.”

“Oh,” Jisung says stupidly. 

“Also, you should check your texts,” Minho says out loud, his voice returning to its normal volume. He sticks a leg back over the bench, making to leave, before his eyes light up. “Oh, check the document and the group chat too, we’ve added quite a bit. Some of it might concern you.” His eyes sparkle mischievously and then he’s out, and Jisung is left facing Felix again. 

There’s no way Jisung is going to be able to check his texts or anything with Felix staring at him expectantly. 

“So,” Felix begins. “Who was that? Do I at least get half an explanation?”

“Minho’s a senior in my math class. Uh… we’re working on a project together,” Jisung lies. He really does hate lying to Felix, though. He dislikes lying in general, but Felix is his best friend. But Jisung has already learned about what it means to keep secrets, especially since he knows Felix would want to get involved but he’d be too vulnerable without any magic. He thinks he understands how Chan and Changbin felt now keeping this from him before.

Felix doesn’t prod Jisung any further, but he does raise an eyebrow like he knows there’s more to the story than Jisung is letting on. Thankfully, the bell rings before Felix can ask anything else and before Jisung catches himself too deep in lies. 

As he walks to fifth period, Jisung glances at his texts. 

**Minho**

>Chan says if you went to the forest

>The forest would send Soonie to help you find some wounded animals

>She’d be able to lead you to them quickly

>And warn you if there’s any danger nearby

>So you’d get a good amount of practice

>Oh. But if you’re not comfortable going alone

>I could come with

Minho’s words are surprisingly thoughtful. Jisung punches out a quick response back, trying not to bump into others in the hallway as he texts.

**Jisung**

ty for info<

Chan’s knowledge is still suspicious<

also don’t know why he couldn’t tell me this himself<

also i think i’ll be fine<

Then Jisung thinks of his repeated nightmares and… oh, who is he kidding.

**Jisung**

sike...if you genuinely have time having company would be great, tysm<

During fifth period, Jisung sneaks a peek at the group chat too. It has a new name and lots of new messages:

**[CHAT] WHO WANTS TO VOLUNTEER THEMSELVES AS ILLUSION BAIT????**

_Changbin changed the name of the chat to **WHO WANTS TO VOLUNTEER THEMSELVES AS ILLUSION BAIT????**_

**Seungmin**

> Hmmm, I think the person who wrote this question 

should volunteer themselves (cough). 

>I could volunteer myself but I’ll be the one casting the illusion, 

so it seems fair that I don’t have to.

**Chan**

>Why do I feel like I’m dealing with kids all the time

**Minho**

>I’d like to volunteer @ **Jisung** hehe

**Changbin**

>ah yes, the resident squirrel himself

**Chan**

>If you’re all going to be like this I’ll volunteer sheesh

>It’s not even actual bait it’s just a face for Seungmin's illusion

**Seungmin**

>Okay yeah but to be fair

>That’s the face the dark magic is still going to remember

>And probably hate

**Minho**

>Pshhh

>Pretty sure the dark magic knows all of our faces already anyway

>And isn’t that the point

>It knows who we are 

>Which makes us more tempting~

**Changbin**

>ok, the way you worded that sounds creepy just saying

>just gotta hope that it’s not smart enough to realize that it’s an illusion

**Seungmin**

>I’ve literally been practicing so hard so you better believe

this illusion is gonna be good 

**Changbin**

>chill, I didn’t say anything about you

>also is it safe to say the document and the plan are finalized?

**Seungmin**

>Yeah probably. 

>Everyone should give it a final lookover before tomorrow

>And please sleep early tonight you’ll need the energy tomorrow

**Jisung**

thanks for so readily volunteering me as sacrifice<

i do have those dashing good looks though so i can see why<

so Chan if you don’t want to i will<

i’ll def look at the doc when i get home though!<

**Changbin**

>i never want to hear those words again

>also pay attention during class

**Jisung**

says you??? get off your own phone<

and i am, i was just a bit curious<

After school Jisung and Minho head to the forest, again, and Soonie greets them at the forest’s edge, offering a hello to Jisung and Minho. He still can’t quite get used to the whole mind communication, so he only gets an amused laugh from Minho when he’s startled by Soonie's—or maybe also the forest’s—voice in his head and he jerks to a halt. 

Sure enough, though, Soonie does do a good job. Jisung’s first patient is coincidentally a squirrel (“Don’t laugh, Minho! Healing is serious business!”) that has a bite mark in its hind leg where the teeth of some animal grazed it. 

After he had helped heal the cat at the animal shelter yesterday, Jisung has learned a little to better control his powers. When he handles the squirrel, Jisung is careful not to let the magic rush out of him so quickly, so that he can conserve his energy better. He watches as the mark on the squirrel disappears in front of his eyes and then has to blink away a few stars in his vision, but he doesn’t feel too drained so it’s an improvement. 

“That was pretty cool, not going to lie,” Minho tells him, as they follow Soonie to their next destination. Jisung makes the mistake of making eye contact, and witnesses Minho looking genuinely proud.

“Thanks,” Jisung says, eyes darting away immediately. He sheepishly shoves his hands into his pocket before they can start fidgeting—it’s a habit he falls too easily into when he’s nervous. Actually, he shouldn’t even be nervous. Jisung just also happens to have a habit of wanting others to like him and enjoy his company.

“Must have felt especially good helping out a family member,” Minho continues, deviously.

“What do you mean?” Jisung asks, and then it clicks. “Hey! Get back here!” 

Minho’s one step ahead of him, though, swiftly darting forward out of Jisung’s reach as he follows Soonie. His laughter rings loudly in the forest, bouncing off of the trees. Jisung doesn’t really mind the teasing but he sure hopes that their map is correct and that there’s no dark magic lurking around, because it would have definitely been alerted by Minho’s voice. 

This time, Soonie ends up stopping in front of a small cluster of bushes, from which a whimpering rabbit limps out behind. The rabbit shrinks back when it sees Soonie—they are prey and predator, after all—but Soonie indifferently steps back and starts licking her paws instead, as if reassuring the rabbit that it’s safe. 

_Temping, but you do have some magic to perfect,_ Soonie tells Jisung, who’s just a bit mortified but is aware of the food chain. 

The rabbit is missing most of its tail and some of the skin on one of its hind legs; it had probably narrowly evaded a hawk or owl. Jisung sticks his hand out and tries to look as harmless as possible as he lets the rabbit tentatively hobble into his palms. He gently places his hand over its backside and rubs a thumb over its injured leg, feeling the magic flowing through him more readily this time, moving through his fingertips to the rabbit at his command. Minho watches quietly from next to him, but he doesn’t notice how Minho’s staring at him, almost in awe at the way he carefully handles the rabbit. Jisung is instead concentrated on feeling the rabbit’s leg and tail thicken out under him as new skin and fur takes root. When he’s done, he lowers his palms back to the ground to let the rabbit scamper off.

Before it disappears completely into the forest, it glances back at Jisung. 

_He’s probably saying ‘thank you,’_ Soonie informs him.

Then Jisung’s fingers start twitching, and his hearing feels muted for a moment. Luckily, it quickly clears, so Jisung hopes he didn’t drain too much of his energy.

“Okay, that was actually cool, no joking this time,” Minho says. “Are you still feeling okay, though? Practice is good, but we don’t want you to push yourself too much before tomorrow.”

“I’m fine,” Jisung says, waving it off, though when they start following Soonie again, maybe it does take just a little more effort to place each foot in front of the other. “Just one more animal,” he reasons. 

They step into the light for a moment, away from thick treetops and closer to a river, the clear water making a soothing noise as it rushes over smooth rocks.

Jisung’s breath catches in his throat. 

Upstream, there’s a buck standing on the riverbank. It’s beautiful, standing tall with its expansive antlers reaching towards the sky. But its hind legs look withered, patches of skin brutally torn off, bitten off possibly. Jisung thinks he can see some bone jutting through.

“Wolves,” Minho mutters. “This forest doesn’t have many but if they hunt in a pack… he’s lucky he got away.”

But because of its injured state, the deer looks extremely wary of them. When Jisung inches forward, it takes a skittish step back and paws at the ground with its hooves. Jisung’s wary too, because he doesn’t want to get hurt by the deer’s antlers either.

Soonie steps forward, and there seems to be a silent mind conversation between the two animals before the buck steps forward and comes to a stop in front of Jisung, dark eyes searching Jisung’s as if looking for reassurance that his intentions aren’t to harm him. 

They’re almost at eye-level with each other, and Jisung looks up slightly into the deer. He thinks a quiet understanding passes between them, and he carefully steps around the buck to reach its backside. 

Up close, the wound is bigger, and even more daunting. Jisung looks up and sees that Minho’s surprised as well, and his eyes are blown wide as his own. Jisung’s not sure if he’ll be able to do this, but his consciousness won’t let him back down now, not when he would be leaving the deer to fend for himself if he didn’t at least try.

 _You may have to heal fellow humans one day. So give it your best effort,_ Soonie tells him, _nudging him forward._

Somehow, that helps a little. Jisung musters up as much determination as he can and crouches down, hands hovering around the buck’s hind legs. If the deer kicked just once, Jisung would be knocked out, dead even, in the blink of an eye. But as Jisung places his trembling hands on its legs it stays still. The balance of life, Jisung supposes. 

Minho squats down next to him. “Be careful—and I’m not talking about the deer. Don’t use up all your energy if you can’t completely heal it, okay?” He looks a bit worried, both for the deer and at the scope of the healing Jisung’s going to have to do.

Jisung nods, but also feels as if he _has_ to help as much as he can. He closes his eyes and feels the magic awakening again, thrumming through his body like it’s part of his blood. Slowly, he directs his attention to his fingertips, focusing on first regrowing some of the skin in the area where the bone is exposed to all the elements. When the bone is carefully concealed, Jisung moves his hands to the next patch of tattered skin and tries to channel his energy into growing out some healthy fur and sealing together all the cuts in the skin. He continues like this, moving his hands after some time or so to another spot because the wounds stretch far down both legs.

“Hey, are you okay?” Minho quietly interrupts him. “You’re looking a little pale…”

“I’m fine,” Jisung says. Truly, he does feel fine. But Jisung’s forgotten that it usually takes some time for the after-effects to catch up to him, and he keeps plodding on. The magic is a small, steady glowing stream from his fingertips, and eventually the buck is healed. In a few places, the fur still looks less lustrous but it’s hard to tell that there were bite marks or skin torn off at all. 

“Whew,” Jisung says, standing up and lightly brushing his fingers over the deer’s back. He smiles at Minho. “Now that felt good, I think I’m as prepared as I can be for tomorrow,” he says, as the deer sends him a thankful look and gracefully steps past him to move downstream.

And _then_ it finally hits. 

A wave of dizziness strikes him like a lightning bolt, and it sends Jisung’s head reeling. His vision blurs out and the scene goes fuzzy, darkness creeping in at the edges. 

“Jisung!” Minho says, and his voice sounds so far away. 

It feels like Jisung’s been hit with a massive invisible punch to his head. He stumbles, and reaches his arms out blindly for something to catch his balance. His knees buckle under him and Jisung’s so sure he’s going to faint on the spot. 

Distantly, he feels strong arms steadying him, wrapping around his back and catching him, pushing him up. The feeling starts receding but it’s still an insistent throbbing pain that muddles his senses.

“I’m… I’m just gonna… close… eyes… for a moment…” Jisung breathes out. “Don’t… worry.”

Minho’s arms tighten around him and Jisung hears his voice in his ears in bouncing echoes. “How could I not worry,” Minho says, and he sounds about as panicked as Jisung’s ever heard him, a detail he registers even through the haze that seems to be blocking out most of the sound. Then Minho’s arms move and he’s hugging Jisung. Minho hugs Jisung and Jisung lets himself lean his weight into Minho, because he doesn’t have the energy to hug back. Minho keeps rubbing his hands in circles on Jisung’s back like it’ll help. Whether it helps or not, Minho’s embrace does make Jisung feel very warm and nice.

“Just gonna… wait… for it to… subside,” Jisung says. “I think… the worst of it… has already passed.” 

So he keeps his eyes shut closed. For a minute, five minutes, he doesn’t know. He leans further into Minho and lets his chin rest on his shoulder. The circles in his back continue. He feels his hearing slowly return to normal, and when he blinks eyes back open, his vision has significantly cleared, though it’s still a tad blurry.

“Okay,” Jisung says, though he doesn’t move. Minho cranes his head back a little to look into Jisung’s eyes. 

“You good?” he asks, eyes torturously kind and concerned.

“Maybe?” Jisung offers hesitantly, letting out a small chuckle. He takes an experimental step back and feels his legs almost give out under him, but Minho wraps his arm firmly around his back, so Jisung takes another few steps, and each one gets easier. 

“...Thanks,” Jisung says lamely, as they’re slowly shuffling back. They each have an arm around the other, and Jisung is basically using Minho as his personal crutch. Soonie walks at a respectable, slower pace next to them.

 _Hmm, I did encourage you but maybe we should have waited a bit before tackling larger injuries,_ Soonie muses. _Apologies for that, but do rest assured that you should feel fine tomorrow after a good night of sleep._

“I would say know your limits, but I guess it’s hard to gauge when you won’t know until afterward,” Minho adds. “Hopefully you’ll get a better sense of things the more you use your magic.”

“Hopefully,” Jisung agrees, wincing when he takes too large of a step. “But I’m just glad I could help the deer.”

“Yeah, you would be,” Minho says. But there’s no hint of teasing, just him stating it as a fact. Jisung turns to look at Minho and Minho’s already looking back, and he’s emanating such _fondness_ that Jisung ducks his head down. 

“Hey, look at me,” Minho says. “That’s admirable. Most people don’t have such big hearts.”

Jisung looks back up, sees that the fondness is still brimming from Minho’s eyes. If Jisung could look back in time and pinpoint it, maybe this is when he felt himself starting to fall a little. 

“You must have a big heart too... or else the forest wouldn’t have chosen you, right?” Jisung asks, wryly. 

“I guess,” Minho returns. “Though, after all, you are the group’s appointed _healer_. You must have an extra warm heart,” he says, eyes twinkling at Jisung. 

“Maybe,” Jisung replies. “And now we’re all in this together, so I can’t let any of you down.”

“See? You have a big heart,” Minho says again. “But you can’t put others before yourself too much,” he says seriously. “That deer was one incident, but be careful in the future, right?”

Jisung nods, but he thinks about their little band of designated forest-savers and thinks he’d do anything to help any one of them, no matter the circumstances.

As the town comes into view, they try to look a little less suspicious walking out of the forest. Minho insists on walking Jisung home and also insists on carrying his backpack for him after they’ve picked it up. 

“Get some good sleep tonight,” Minho reminds him as he stands on Jisung’s doorstep. “And I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” He gingerly hands over Jisung’s backpack like he’s still worried that the weight will be too much for a deenergized Jisung.

“Will do,” Jisung salutes him, grinning as he takes the backpack. It seems a bit heavier than normal, but Jisung doesn’t really feel disoriented anymore, just weary and drained like he’s stayed up for far too long. But Minho’s lasting concern is touching, and maybe a little adorable, Jisung admits to himself.

It seems like it’s always sunset when Minho drops him off at his house, but for some reason this time Jisung really can’t help but notice how the light accentuates all of Minho’s features. Jisung knows Minho’s attractive, anyway, but at this moment the thought knocks the breath out of him, and Jisung feels a tug in his gut that is definitely not a side effect of using his healing powers too much. Minho’s golden skin and small smile and the warmth that’s reflected from the sun and his soul through his eyes make Jisung ten times more self-conscious as he licks his lips and opens his mouth again.

“You sleep well tonight too,” Jisung says, waves goodbye as Minho leaves, and softly closes the door.

( _Ohhhhhh boy_ , he thinks to himself, cradling his backpack over his fluttering heart).


	7. Chapter 7

Suffice to say, Jisung’s revelation roots itself insistently in the back of his mind, a gnarly thing with a grip that won’t let up. It even seems to spread and bury itself deeper the more Jisung thinks about it. Still, he tries not to let himself get too distracted, especially with their daring plan looming around the corner. After dinner, he remembers Chan’s reminder and opens their shared doc, reading through it one more time. 

It’ll go like this: after school they’ll stake out in an area where the magic had started infesting the animals. Minho will first move around (slowly, as he’s camouflaged) to find a small, young, infested deer that’s alone— hopefully there will be, because they’d like to try their plan out with just one deer first and as minimal of a confrontation with the dark magic. Then he’ll bring Seungmin and Changbin over to a good hiding spot, and keep them camouflaged as Seungmin casts his illusion. They ended up going with Chan as the bait, but only because Chan kept insisting on it like the selfless leader he is. Hopefully, it’ll tempt the magic out of the deer, and Changbin will use his heightened perception to detect the exact moment the magic has left the deer’s body, as well as determine if the dark magic becomes aware that the Chan is sees is just an illusion.

In a different hiding spot, but closeby, Chan will stay hidden the entire time, communicating with the forest in case it senses any unusual fluctuations in the magical balance and ready to warn and pull the others out if need be. Jisung will be next to Chan and they’ll (hopefully) stay hidden until the very last moment, but Jisung will be there to jump out and heal injuries if he needs to, if it comes to that. 

And that “very last moment” will go down this way: once Changbin sees that the last traces of magic have left the deer, he’ll tap Seungmin, and Seungmin will make the illusion of Chan say the code word (which is kangaroo—because they couldn’t think of anything better). Seungmin then has to make Chan’s illusion do something really ridiculous and distracting, and right then Jisung and Chan will spring out of their hiding spot and take the deer away to a final hiding place just outside the forest that they’ve decided on. If it goes to plan, while they’re waiting for the other three Jisung will try and heal the deer (that is, if the deer turns out to even still be alive after the dark magic has inhabited its body for so long). If the magic detects Jisung’s and Chan’s presence as they try and take the deer, then Jisung and Chan are just going to run for it (this infested spot is closer to the edge of the forest, where the magic can’t follow them out of). Then the other three will rescue the deer instead. 

Honestly, as Jisung reads through it, he can conjure up so many things that can go wrong. They’re only teenagers; they can’t think of a completely foolproof plan. So the forest better be helping them back somehow if they’re risking their lives for this, he thinks. It’s just because the forest’s magic can also only survive in a vessel (like its trees, or animals, or like their group of amateur forest-helping teenagers) that they were even enlisted to help in the first place. And they don’t really have a choice anymore—it’s just help or risk the dark magic spreading and eventually breaking out into town and then many more lives will be on the line. Exciting storybook adventures—until they’re also quite scary. 

So even though there are lots of ways the plan can go wrong, Jisung can only hope that none of them actually occur. 

He stares at the document open on his laptop one more time, committing the details to memory, and conks out on his bed, exhausted from all the healing he’s done. 

Surprisingly, maybe because of how tired he’d been, Jisung sleeps soundly that night—no strange nightmares of his friends being possessed by the dark magic or of the infested deer looming closer to his face. He wakes up feeling pretty refreshed for once, and is glad that Soonie had been right when she said that a good night of sleep would clear his exhaustion. 

He’s less groggy when he steps into first period that morning, though the alertness also does nothing to help his anxiety and his fingers from fidgeting with everything in sight. The clock seems to move slower than normal as school drags on and the time ticks down to their plan. During lunch, Felix asks Jisung about his more-restless-than-usual fingers to which Jisung replies with a bad excuse about a test (which he does have, but that’s not what he’s thinking about). During sixth period, Minho also shoots him a knowing look, which makes Jisung really think he should get better at controlling his fingers. But when they pack up Minho also asks Jisung how he’s been feeling after yesterday and Jisung can’t help the giddy feeling that rises in his chest at that.

They walk together to the music shop as usual, and head to the same back room as before to meet up with the rest of the group, where they leave their backpacks and Chan runs through the plan one more time. 

Finally—finally, they’re all walking towards the forest, the first time they’re doing so altogether. Jisung tries not to overthink things, because he has a bad tendency to do so. They’re going to do this, and whatever happens just happens. 

They arrive at the outskirts of the forest and Minho splits off first ahead of them in the direction of the infested area to scout. One moment Jisung sees Minho in front of them, and then he blinks and Minho’s gone. He’s still there, just camouflage amongst the trees—if Jisung stares hard enough, he can glimpse flashes of Minho’s foot or a hand against the trunks. 

The rest of them follow in Minho’s general direction, being careful to stay behind the cover of bushes and trees whenever they can. 

Usually it’s chittering with life, but today the forest is unusually quiet and devoid of sound. Though maybe that’s because they’re getting closer and closer to the area where the dark magic is running aloof; of course no life that hasn’t been infested yet would want to hang around here. 

Sure enough, the darkness starts invading the area, shrouding the trees in wisps of shade and the vegetation gets darker and more shriveled. They hang back on the edges of this area—though it’s not as clearly marked as the glade Jisung had seen before, there’s still something in the air and in the life (or lack of life) that is most definitely wrong.

Minho materializes in front of them, causing both Jisung and Changbin to flinch. 

“Is there any way to do that in a less creepy way?” Seungmin mutters. 

“Nope,” Minho replies, and then he reaches forward until he has one hand in Seungmin’s and one in Changbin’s. “Ready?”

They nod. Seconds later, neither of the three can be seen. 

“Wow I am not used to this,” Changbin’s voice mutters from the air in front of them. 

“Right...that does get me every time,” Chan says. “Minho, direction?”

“Southwest a couple hundred meters. You’ll know the deer when you see it. She’s fairly small, was probably really young,” comes Minho’s saddened voice. Hearing a voice without a matching physical person is definitely… still a bit unnerving. 

“Ah…” Chan trails off. “Okay, see you again when it’s over,” he says. “Good luck!” 

“Good luck,” three bodiless voices reply, followed by a hiss of “Changbin, Seungmin, walk slower, I can’t sustain three people at such a fast pace!” Jisung thinks he hears a muffled reply, but it’s taken away by the distance between them. 

Chan and Jisung start heading in the direction behind them, lurking behind the shrubbery.

“Everything’s so dead,” Jisung says quietly. “Always looks like it’s out of a horror movie or something.”

“It’s far worse now, too,” Chan replies. “When I first came across areas like this it was hard to notice a difference, but now the magic’s pretty much affected everything in the area.” 

Their conversation fades to silence as they try to stay quiet and avoid unwanted attention. They pass by the occasional animal—a stray bird that quickly flies away after landing on a dead tree, an owl that hoots above them.

They also pass a couple deer, but those deer are definitely older and far too infested. Jisung gulps and avoids looking anywhere in their direction for fear of locking eyes with one of them again. And screw that, he does not want to feel like his brain and soul have just been vacuumed out of him. That and they’re trying to keep a low profile anyway. If either of those deer noticed them they’d be in huge trouble.

After that, though, in the distance they see a smaller deer feeding on the dead grey grass. It’s so unappetizing that Jisung’s willing to bet that the only thing getting fed by the grass is the magic itself, not the deer. But this is definitely the one Minho was referring two—small and lithe, no sign of antlers, looks like a young doe. When she stretches her neck back up Jisung thinks her full height would only reach his chest at the very tallest. Her coat is definitely dark and radiating dark magic and Jisung is not going to risk looking at her eyes for long but they’re distinctly clouded and lifeless. 

Jisung shudders and wants to curl into himself. Besides him, Chan stops too and pulls Jisung comfortingly into his embrace as they duck behind a tree with a particularly wide trunk. They’ve been careful enough to pick their hiding spot behind a tree that’s still relatively alive—just in case being around an infested tree could somehow give away their presence. Also, this one happens to be both close enough that they can watch the deer’s movements and far enough that they maintain a safe distance.

“Don’t say anything from now on unless you absolutely have to. We’ll just have to wait,” Chan whispers so quietly Jisung can hardly hear him. Jisung kind of wishes he could control his voice like that. 

_Also if I really need to I can talk to you this way,_ Chan says, in his head. Jisung startles at that, and almost makes a noise. 

_What?! you didn’t say you could talk to us this way,_ Jisung thinks back excitedly.

_It definitely requires more energy. Perks of being connected to the forest. Anyway, stop talking to me now I’m not wasting any more energy on this._

So Jisung shuts up. And they wait. 

Jisung wonders where the other three are staked out. Not that he would be able to see them anyway, but as a precaution in case Minho’s camouflage doesn’t work perfectly. Besides the oak tree they’re concealed behind, there’s also a few other trees but they’re all smaller. Also a few bushes that they could duck behind. Jisung hopes they’re safe.

He’s reassured by this moments later when Jisung sees Chan—no, fake, Seungmin-generated Chan—walk out from behind a cluster of shrubs (so that can’t be where they’re hiding; they wouldn’t have the illusion reveal their hiding spot). 

_I know I said I’m conserving energy, but I just have to say: now that is a true out-of-body experience,_ Chan’s voice resonates in his head. _Seungmin really did a good job; even I can’t tell it’s not me,_ he jokes, before falling silent once again. 

Jisung watches in amazement. Chan’s right; he really can’t tell the difference. If not for the fact that he can still feel the very real press of Chan’s hands over his shoulders, he wouldn’t know this was an illusion—at least not from a distance. Not-Chan walks with the same demeanor, and bears a somber expression on his face like he’s aware of the danger but has no idea that he’s about to face it full on. Jisung really hopes it’s tempting enough for the dark magic.

If it is, they all know not-Chan is about to get a big surprise.

Soon enough, not-Chan trips on a rock that sends him flying face-down towards the ground. His arms come out just soon enough to prevent his face from hitting the dirt, but it’s enough to keep him on the ground there. Jisung grins to himself; Seungmin really outdid himself with this one.

The small doe cranes her neck to the side to see what just caused the ground to tremble, what caused her to feel the tiny ripples in the ground. She glimpses the fallen not-Chan. 

Then it all goes down. 

Immediately, the young doe’s eyes dilate, and get incredibly dark, even though they were dark to begin with. They zero-in on the Chan illusion, who is doing a convincing job of rubbing his arms to try and get the blood circulating back in the area. 

Jisung watches both in horror and awe. One second the deer has pinpointed the human on the ground. In the next, she’s right in front of and looking directly down on the human. She had bounded over at such a fast pace that it’s frightening. Meanwhile, illusion Chan looks convincingly startled and also pale and scared to death, feeling the suffocating tendrils of darkness that ebb in and out of the deer wave around his body.

_But don’t let the illusion directly look into the deer’s eyes for too long. Otherwise, the dark magic might be able to tell that the illusion is an illusion._

Jisung had remembered writing this on their planning document. A detail he could never forget. Jisung still knows exactly how it felt to lock eyes with the deer and the magical being inside it. 

In this case, it could be a dead giveaway. Of course, the eyes are the window to the soul… if you look at the eyes you can tell just how much of the spark of life someone has in them. How invigorated, how excited, how irritated, how tired someone is. How they truly feel. So one look at not-Chan’s eyes could be met with emptiness, a hollowed out picture of a pupil, an iris, and nothing else. Eyes that blink and look around but can’t convey feelings. Seungmin had replied to Jisung that even though the illusion would be controlled by a person that is very much alive, the illusion itself would always be as lifeless as the infested forest glades. No matter how detailed the illusion, he couldn’t completely imitate life-itself; only life could create its own literal carbon-copies. 

Luckily, Seungmin still consciously remembers all of this. Playing the part of a scared human, not-Chan trembles and stays on the ground, and Seungmin makes the illusion refuse to look up as if he’s too terrified to do so. 

The doe stamps the ground impatiently, and then decides to move anyway. Her neck goes rigid and she points straight down at an angle towards not-Chan’s face. Not-Chan, ever the expertly-created illusion, clutches his hands over his face (covering his eyes) in a way that suggests he’s rationalizing that if he can’t see the danger it isn’t there. 

Not that the deer seems to care, anyway. Her neck is still stiffly pointed at Chan. Then her mouth opens and she begins dispelling puffs of dark vapor that shoot into the air. The vapor floats around amorphously but definitely has clear intentions—to try and enter Chan’s system when he breathes in. 

So the magic has fallen for the bait, and it’s trying to migrate into a more powerful vessel now. 

As real Chan, or any of them, would do in a situation like this, not-Chan tries not to breathe in the corrupted air. To stall for time and to get as much of the magic out of the deer’s system before it realizes something is off, Seungmin even has the illusion believably stand up on wobbly legs and try to make a break for it. But the deer is quick to corner him against a tree and the cloud of grey magic that she has begun huffing out follows him intently, indicating that the Chan illusion won’t be going anywhere. Which is fine, because this is part of their plan. 

At this point, the entire area around the two beings is shrouded in scary grey air—like a polluted cloud of smog, or smoke from a fire, but worse. Jisung can barely see them through the thick air. But this is good, because they’re running on the suspicion that the magic can’t survive on its own in the air for long like this. It needs to live in the body of something else. 

The deer stumbles, finally looking a little less dead, and possibly… still alive despite how much it had gone through with the dark magic living inside it. There’s hope after all, that the magic doesn’t completely devastate the souls of its inhabitants.

Seungmin takes it as a sign for not-Chan to finally open his mouth and take a shaky breath through his fingers. Actually, he’s breathing in nothing because he’s not real, but Seungmin has not-Chan quietly hacking and coughing out of his mouth. Though he can only do so much with the illusion’s eyes, Jisung witnesses the scary sight of not-Chan’s irises darkening to a disconcerting jet-black, and the illusion continues taking in deep breaths. 

But this is where they have to take action. Because any moment now the magic will quickly realize that it isn’t being ingested into Chan’s bloodstream, and it’s going to try and double back and worm itself back into the deer. 

_Now,_ real-Chan thinks to Jisung. _No signal or code word yet but I can just feel it coming._

 _But we’re going to get caught._ They are. This had seemed simple on paper, but the magic is definitely going to see them if they jump out and try to snatch the deer away now, no matter how distracting of an action Seungmin makes the illusion do.

Maybe the others are on the same wavelength, because a heartbeat later three things simultaneously happen at once:

One, not-Chan spits the word “kangaroo” into the otherwise eerie and silent forest, which seems rather ineffective at this point and would have gotten a laugh out of Jisung if not for the fact that he’s scared shitless. 

Two, the dark cloud of magic goes still. 

Three, Minho, Seungmin, and Changbin all materialize across the way from them, directly in view of the dark cloud of magic. 

_Oh no_ , Jisung thinks. As a better distraction, they’ve reverted to using real human bait now. 

The cloud starts up again and changes its course, directly towards the other three, who then vanish out of sight again. He can only hope Minho knows what he’s doing.

Jisung feels a yank to his sleeve and then Chan’s pulling him out of their hiding spot and they sprint to the deer, who now looks too shocked to run away from them. Jisung hesitates but Chan is quickly picking up the deer’s backside and hind legs in his arms, so Jisung takes the front up, careful not to do any additional damage in the process. As quickly as they arrived, they’re running off back where they came and further, towards the spot they had designated before at the edge of the forest, except this time with an additional weight in their arms.

Well, at least their the other three’s last-minute distraction had worked, because there’s no sign that they’re being followed. Jisung scrambles to run as fast as Chan, and hopes the deer isn’t being uncomfortably jostled with each step. 

Finally, they arrive at the rendezvous spot, and lay the deer down on healthy, vibrant green grass. The deer takes gasping breaths and its coat has started fading back to a normal shade of brown. 

But its eyes… Jisung darts a quick glance down and sees that they’re still murky. Chan brings a hand down to pet soothing strokes along the deer’s fur, but scrunches his eyebrows up as he tries to think of what to do next. 

_Help,_ a voice says in his head. Jisung almost jumps back in surprise. Chan’s hand stills too, so he must have heard it as well.

Soonie delicately steps out from behind a tree. _That’s what the deer is saying, I’m just relaying the message._

“Uhm, what should we do to help?” Jisung asks out loud.

 _Jisung, you must heal the deer,_ is all Jisung gets. Then Soonie shifts her attention to Chan and Jisung doesn’t know what she tells him but Chan gets up and walks off a few paces, following the cat a short distance away. 

_Wait, but if her eyes are still clouded then doesn’t that mean there’s still some dark magic lingering inside her? Can I really do anything about that?_ Jisung asks. 

No response. 

Jisung stares down at his hands, and then down at the deer, and winces. Given the circumstances, she definitely doesn’t look horrible, but the eyes are ever-so disconcerting. 

“Okay… I’m just gonna… try?” Jisung speaks into the void. 

Shoot, where does he even start? There are no physical injuries, really. Nothing on the surface for him to heal. 

“Fuck,” Jisung hears Chan say out loud, interrupting Jisung’s dilema. It must be some sort of bad news from Soonie, and it must be _really_ bad, because Jisung rarely hears Chan curse. “Okay, okay. Uh, Jisung, stay here and try and help the deer. I have to go back, I think one of them is in trouble.”

Jisung jerks his head up. “What? Is anyone hurt? Shouldn’t I come and help then?” Oh god, this wasn’t how they had planned it. 

“No,” Chan says so sternly that Jisung flinches. “Stay right here and help the deer.” Then Chan’s gone before Jisung can say another protest, following Soonie back into the depths of the forest. 

_Don’t panic don’t panic,_ Jisung tells himself. He has to focus on this goal first. He looks at the deer again, and accidentally meets her eyes. But as he braces himself for disaster nothing happens. Jisung stares back into the doe’s eyes, the windows to her soul. Her eyes are still a turbulent black but he can see traces of life fighting through to be seen through the cracks. 

With that, Jisung suddenly knows what he has to do. Gently, he smooths his thumbs over the deer’s eyelids, closing its eyes. It reminds him of preparing a body for the casket, except Jisung isn’t sending the deer to its death but healing it instead. Jisung concentrates on that spark of light he had glimpsed in her eyes, hidden beneath the layers of darkness, and channels his magic to bring it out, to expel the darkness and reveal the light. He feels the light pulsing beneath him, stronger and stronger as it surges to the surface. 

Then the doe’s eyes shoot open, and Jisung jerks his hands away. He’s met by warm brown irises, eyes that have seen and known too much, but eyes that finally look _alive_ again.

She’s crying. But Jisung looks closer and sees that the deer’s tears are a dark liquid, the last of the dark magic that Jisung had finally purged from her eyes. The tears run down her head and fall off in small droplets that stain the grass. 

The doe stands up on wobbly legs. Soonie isn’t around to relay her thoughts, but she gives Jisung such a soulfully sincere look that Jisung almost wants to cry himself because he’s certain it’s a thank you and it’s definitely the most beautiful look of gratitude he’s seen. Unable to stop himself, Jisung reaches his hands out and wipes off the last few tears. They sting his thumbs, but there’s not nearly enough magic in them to do anything else. 

“Stay safe,” Jisung tells the deer. She nods, and leaves—in search of a new life.

Jisung falls back onto the ground because he’s not sure if his own legs can hold him up after all that; first the running, then the healing. He sits in the grass, feeling a bit lightheaded, staring blankly into the distance. He’s not sure how long he sits there, to be honest. 

After some time, Jisung hears footsteps. Seungmin and Minho emerge first, then Changbin and Chan. Changbin looks like he’s slightly limping, leaning on Chan for support. But otherwise they’re all physically unharmed. 

Mentally, though… everyone looks fatigued. Though, Jisung probably looks weary too, so he can’t really judge. 

“The deer’s alive. I helped her, and she left a while ago. What happened? Chan, why’d you have to go back?” Jisung asks.

“Ah, I tripped on a sneaky branch,” Changbin says. “So then Minho lost his grip on my hand, and I became completely visible, out in the open. Dark magic almost got me there.”

“But thankfully it didn’t,” Chan cuts in. “It’s okay, we’re all fine now. And we were right, because after so long in the air without a body it finally started to disintegrate and fade away.” 

“Come on, let’s head back,” Chan continues. “After all that, I’m really hungry. Do you guys want to get dinner together tonight?” 

“ _Yes,_ ” they all answer at once, laughing. 

“Thought so,” Chan says. 

Jisung misses the way Chan’s tired but assuring smile doesn’t perfectly reach his eyes—which are, after all, the windows to his soul.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the plot thickens...


	8. Chapter 8

“So… My friend Jeongin ran up to me in the hallways today and said he had a dream where he was in the forest fighting creepy deer. But he said I was there too, along with other people that he listed. Normally I would ignore this except it’s the forest, you know? And it’s a scary coincidence if that’s his dream when he knows nothing about the deer that are actually being infested in the forest.” 

“Could just be a really really bad coincidence?” Chan asks, rubbing his temples.

“No,” Seungmin replies firmly. “Because I went with him into the heart of the forest a few years ago.” 

“O...kay…” Chan says. “And you did that, because?”

“It was years ago, we were curious, okay? I’m wondering if he somehow got a bit of the forest’s magic during that trip, or if he somehow developed a faint connection to it, though.”

“If so, maybe the dream is a warning? Or maybe it means something.” Jisung says.

“I’m not sure. It’s possible it’s also a coincidence, but I’m not sure. For one, some of the other people Jeongin named in the dream aren’t part of this group right now. From the descriptions I figured out that we were all in his dream—but he also talked about another one of our friends named Hyunjin, and a couple other people who I don’t know.”

“I don’t even want to try and dissect the meaning of all this right now,” Chan says, resting his head against his hand. “Can’t I just get a good night’s sleep and come back to this…”

“Wait a second,” Jisung says. “I’ve had funny dreams before, too. But mostly just this one recurring nightmare where two dark, soulless eyes will be staring at me from behind a tree. But instead of a deer one of you guys will step out instead, and you’ll be infested and you’ll just move closer and closer until I wake up.” 

“Hey,” Changbin turns on him. “I already know Chan has trouble sleeping, but what about you, are you sleeping alright?” Concern is painted over his features. 

“Yeah,” Jisung says. “Lately I haven’t been having nightmares as much. Also, I don’t know what they could mean, either.”

“Could literally just be dreams,” Seungmin says. “Logically, Jisung, your nightmares are probably a product of all of your encounters with the dark magic, which produced a sense of fear in you. Although… except for that one time, Jeongin hasn’t been in the forest. So his dreams might mean something, or they might just be dreams, plain and simple.”

“Sorry guys,” Chan interrupts. “I’m desperately tired, stayed up last night working on a paper. I hate to do this, but can I call the meeting short for today?” And it must be really bad; Chan must be extremely tired, because he’s not normally vocal about it, never wanting to bother others with his own problems. Jisung’s glad he’s being more open about it these days though.

“Of course,” Minho says, and the others chorus an agreement. “Get some sleep,” Minho continues. “And worry about us a little less, we’ll be okay and you really need rest,” he adds, eyes softening as he looks at Chan. 

“Thanks guys—Oh!” Chan suddenly exclaims. “I almost forgot! Meet here Thursday, we’ll go into the forest heart. I’ve been talking to the forest and it has a surprise for us, after we helped save that deer yesterday. I think you’ll like it a lot.”

“A surprise?” Changbin perks up, interested. “What sort of surprise?”

“A secret,” Chan smiles wearily. “You’ll like it, though. And Seungmin, update me if Jeongin has more of those dreams.”

“Will do,” Seungmin says. 

So they end the meeting, and Jisung really hopes Chan can get a good night’s rest. 

\---

Maybe Jisung should get used to Minho cornering him after math class, because it certainly seems to happen a lot these days. 

Minho slaps his hands down onto Jisung’s desk, and Jisung almost drops his notebook out of his hands. “What do you want?” he asks, looking up. He’s met with Minho’s grin, and a satisfied one at that—from drawing Jisung’s attention to him. 

“Do you have anything to do after school?” Minho asks, voice saccharine and he’s definitely up to something. 

Jisung’s pretty sure Minho knows he isn’t working a shift today, but other than that Jisung honestly isn’t too busy, so he shrugs. “Not really, why?”

“Let’s go out!” Minho says cheerfully. 

“Go out?” Jisung’s heart almost comes to a full stop; _Like a date?_ He wishfully thinks. Instead he replies, “Go out… where?”

“How about I make it a surprise. A super special secret surprise,” Minho answers, batting his eyelashes. It’s an action that looks simultaneously both stupid and attractive on him, to Jisung’s disdain. 

Jisung groans as they exit the classroom. “Really? Can’t you just tell me so I can decide whether I want to go or not?”

“Nope,” Minho is quick to reply. “And you already said you weren’t busy, so you better come with me,” he says, smoothly wrapping one arm around Jisung’s own and latching on with a vice-like grip. Unfortunately, due to Jisung’s recent revelation about Minho, this action also serves to make Jisung’s heart skip a beat in his chest. 

“Great,” Jisung replies loudly, enthusiastically, sarcastically. And nonchalantly, he hopes.

“I think you’ll like it,” Minho replies. “I won’t spoil too much, but the place we’re going is somewhere in the forest.” At the way Jisung must start to look panicked, Minho quickly backtracks. “Nowhere dangerous, though!” he reassures. 

Jisung sighs. Curiosity is what got him into this entire mess in the first place, and, well, now he’s curious again. And— _Minho,_ the other part of his brain sneakily reminds him. “Okay,” he relents, letting Minho pull him along and hoping that the ‘surprise’ is good. 

This time, instead of going directly into the forest, Minho drags him around the outskirts of it, and they walk further north along the forest edge. There isn’t a clear border but the shrubbery and trees thin out, and there’s only sparser grass and weeds. 

Eventually, they swerve into the forest, and Jisung feels the temperature drop a bit, which he’s started to get used to. Jisung wants to ask when they’ll reach the destination Minho has in mind because his backpack is starting to feel heavier on his shoulders; when he’s about to speak up Minho suddenly says “only a few more minutes,” almost as if he can read Jisung’s mind. Jisung wonders if he absentmindedly started walking a bit slower, or if he has another tell that indicated he was getting impatient. Though he isn’t actually impatient—in this section of the forest, it’s peaceful, spare the occasional bird call or rustle as some animal scutters around. 

And despite their relative lack of conversation it’s not that uncomfortable either. Minho looks like he’s in a particularly good mood, and it seems as if he’s content to have an arm looped through Jisung’s own, an eagerness in his steps that makes Jisung more curious about this ‘surprise.’

Soon enough, Jisung starts hearing water trickling, a faint sound that grows closer until they come across a stream, clear water rushing over smoothened pebbles. They walk along the bank, Minho tugging Jisung upstream until the stream widens out into something like a river and the rush of water turns into a roar, and Jisung hears the telltale steady thunder of a waterfall. 

Minho pulls Jisung past a thick cluster of bushes—here, the forest is healthy and thriving, and they have to forge much of their own path—and Jisung’s met with the magical sight of water beating down into a larger circular pool, the mouth of the river. They step closer and Jisung feels faint drops of water landing on his face and hands, a result of the splashes from where the falling water hits the surface of the pool. 

“Nice, right?” Minho has to step closer and speak up into Jisung’s ear to be heard over the waterfall. 

Jisung nods, and is about to reply when Minho jerks him forward. “There’s a way to the top,” Minho yells over the roar, by way of explanation. 

So they slip behind the waterfall to where the scenery turns rockier, and Minho finally lets go of Jisung’s arm to scale the rocks up. 

“I thought you said it wasn’t dangerous!” Jisung complains. The waterfall is by no means huge, so they wouldn't have to climb very far up, and it’s not very steep as the rocks form something that faintly resembles a staircase, but Jisung doesn’t like the idea of _climbing_ or _up_ at all.

“It’s fine!” Minho shouts back. “I did this multiple times even though I don’t like heights!” Huh, so Minho doesn’t like heights either. It’s a consolation, so Jisung rationalizes that he can do it too and grudgingly places his hand on a higher ledge, using it to help steady him onto the first rock. Minho turns out to be right—it’s fairly easy to navigate the rocky terrain, and Jisung is up sooner than he thought. At the top, the water flows past them, and they can see it dropping off below. Jisung makes sure to stay further from the drop, because better safe than sorry. 

“Okay, we’re here, if you couldn’t guess yet,” Minho says, sitting down on a flatter rock and setting his backpack next to him. The deafening sound is a bit more muted now that they’re higher up and away from the pounding water splashes, and serves as more of a rhythmic background noise that merges with the other sounds of the forest. Minho doesn’t have to shout to be heard anymore. 

Rocks continue to line the riverbank by the mouth of the waterfall, forming a sort-of wall. Then they give way into lush grass, and forest again, further from the water. Jisung hears a swoosh overhead and turns to see a duck landing on a rock that breaks the surface water’s surface in the middle of the river. It seems to know better than to go swimming right by the waterfall’s mouth and places a webbed foot forward, bending down to drink up water from the security of the rock instead.

“How’d you find this place?” Jisung asks. 

“I actually used to just like to explore around the forest, before all this chaos started up. Brought a compass just so I wouldn’t accidentally get myself too lost, and walked around a lot during the summers when I got bored."

“Just… by yourself?”

“I did have a compass! And I may be scared of heights but I wasn’t really scared of the forest itself. I guess I just wanted to explore, especially in places like this that are pretty much untouched by humans.” 

“That’s because everyone else is too scared to go into the forest,” Jisung mutters. 

“Well, now I’m admittedly more hesitant to just go wandering around, because of all the dark magic that’s lurking around. But this area of the forest seems to be unharmed, and hopefully it stays that way,” Minho says, standing up. He steps onto a large rock that’s closer to the water to sit down again and leans back, dangling his feet over the river. Then Jisung watches as Minho takes off his socks and shoes, sets them behind him, and scoots forward on his rock until the water is brushing around his bare feet. 

“It feels nice,” Minho says. “You should try it.”

Jisung hesitantly looks between the fast-paced flow of water and the safer, dry, rocks. It’ll be fine, right?

As if sensing his dilemma, Minho pats his rock and shifts to make space. “This is big enough for both of us, and you’ll be fine—the water isn’t going to whisk you away if you just dip your feet in.”

“Okay.” Jisung says. “Okay,” he says again, reaffirming it for himself. Carefully, Jisung takes small steps around the tops of the rocks until he reaches the one Minho’s sitting at and breathes a sigh of relief. He takes off his own socks and shoes, rolls up the ends of his pants, and finally sits down. The rock is nice and smooth—no weird ridges digging into his butt—though it isn’t _that_ big, and Jisung has to press his arm against Minho’s even when Minho scoots over a little more to give him more space. 

Jisung edges forward oh-so-slowly that when his toes touch the water he almost jerks his legs back. He feels the shake of Minho’s shoulders against his own, and hears teasing laughter tumbling out of Minho’s mouth.

“The water’s cold,” Jisung protests. “I just wasn’t expecting it, okay?” 

Especially since it’s still winter, on the cusp of spring, the water is by no means warm. But Jisung cautiously dips his toes in again and keeps them there, finding that the water isn’t terribly cold, either. Although if they kept their feet in the water for too long they’d probably go numb.

“I know, just your reaction to it,” Minho says, chuckling. “You get used to the temperature, anyway.”

Jisung finally submerges the entirety of his feet, feeling the water flowing over them and through his toes like a soothing massage. It does feel nice, and Jisung feels himself relaxing, staring into the distance as the water continues to rush around his ankles and his mind clears itself of any cluttered thoughts. 

Beside him, Minho seems deep in thought until Jisung feels the cold press of Minho’s feet knocking against his own beneath the water. It interrupts Jisung’s peace but it’s light enough to make him think it’s accidental, and he goes back to spacing out. 

But a few seconds later there’s a slightly harder poke at his feet, and Jisung glances to the side to see Minho struggling at keeping a straight face. Jisung grins to himself and jabs back, and somehow they end up in a war of footsie, albeit a bit gentler because neither wants to do anything that might make the other lose their seating on the rock. Jisung can see the distorted reflections of their faces warped in the rushing water, both of them trying not to burst into laughter and the image looks like the dumbest thing but it’s fun and Jisung will not be the first one to break. 

“Your toes are so bony and aggressive,” Minho suddenly says, cutting through the silence. Jisung sees Minho’s water reflection setting his mouth into the most deadpan look, and the ridiculous sentence combined with the contorted image makes Jisung burst into laughter, in turn causing Minho to laugh too. Jisung gives an especially harsh and bony stab to Minho’s foot in retort before their foot war ceases, giving way to giggles instead. 

“See? I knew you’d like it,” Minho says. “Just the feeling of just being isolated in such a beautiful place, away from… everything, you know? I can forget about school, and tests, and especially all this dark magic stuff, even if it’s hiding somewhere in the forest below right now.”

“Yeah,” Jisung says. “Thanks for bringing me here. Although, I wouldn’t want to come back again, at least not alone, since…” since Jisung’s too scared to go around the forest by himself, so sue him. Also he wasn’t paying close attention to the path Minho took once they entered the forest, so he also has no idea how to get to and from the waterfall, but he doesn’t need to go into that.

“That’s fine,” Minho says lightly. “We could… always come back again together?” Minho asks. 

Jisung nods. “Maybe. Especially once all of this is over, then it would be even more worry-free.”

“Cool. I’d like that,” Minho replies, voice quieter, and then an arm brushes against Jisung’s back and a hand comes to rest loosely around his waist. 

Jisung probably would’ve jumped out of his seat right then and there if his seat weren’t a rock on the edge of the bank of a river flowing towards a waterfall mouth. Instead, he wills away the tense feeling that has just entered his muscles and attempts to relax into Minho’s arm. It kind of works, except Jisung can’t relax very well when his heart has decided to run a marathon in his chest. Jisung reminds himself to breathe in and out until his heartbeat has returned to a normal pace, but he can’t help but notice the warmth that Minho radiates when Jisung is just pressed against him like this, and how nice it feels. 

Both of them fall silent again, and Jisung just lets himself sink into this feeling: the consistent thrum of the waterfall into the pool below them, the mild winter sun, the slight breeze—not frigid but gentle and refreshing, despite the season, the river water lapping around his feet and Minho’s warm arm around him, grounding him in the moment. It’s just the two of them in the middle of nature; Jisung can almost forget about everything else, can feel himself slipping deeper and he wonders how one encounter with Minho turned into this, how Jisung used to be so scared of the forest (and still is scared) but has now seen such a beautiful side of nature residing within it, and has connected with the forest on—quite literally—a spiritual level. He wonders if Minho feels the same, because right then and there, Jisung really can’t help but want to push their relationship a little more (shoot, he’s starting to have it for Minho real bad). But he doesn’t want to disrupt the tranquility.

Actually, for a while it’s so relaxing that Jisung feels his eyes wanting to close and almost decides to let his self-control out the window by resting his head on Minho’s shoulder. But Minho suddenly moves, the hand on Jisung’s waist slipping away and the warmth suddenly gone as Minho pulls his feet out of the water and stands up on the rock. 

“The water feels good, but I think my feet are gonna go numb if I keep them in here any longer,” Minho says, stepping away to another rock and sitting down to put on his socks and shoes. 

“What, you mean you never wanted to try freezing your feet?” Jisung jokes, earning a snort from Minho. Jisung hadn’t even noticed, too caught up in his drifting thoughts and the peaceful atmosphere, but now that Minho points it out his feet are getting rather cold. Jisung stands up too, and the sensation of his cold bare feet against the solid warm rock feels a bit strange after so long in the water. Jisung reaches for his own shoes, and sits down again, shaking his feet to try and dry them off. He still ends up struggling with his socks—they don’t sit quite right against his slightly wet feet—but gives up adjusting the misaligned seams at his toes and pulls on his shoes when Minho pointedly taps his feet, though his expression is tinged with amusement. 

They shoulder their backpacks and carefully scale their way back down the rocks, the waterfall once again turning into a roaring noise in close proximity. Once they’re out of range of the pounding water, they slow down to a more comfortable pace. Now, without the constant noise of the waterfall, the forest seems especially quite, save for the occasional animal calling out. 

“You know, none of the others know that place exists. It’s really a secret spot,” Minho says. 

“Wait, then why bring me there?” The words tumble out of Jisung’s mouth before he can really think through them.

“I felt like” Minho begins, “I could use the company, and asking you was pretty convenient. And…” his last sentence trails off, evaporating into the forest air. 

“And?” Jisung asks, because once again curiosity has got the best of him. 

Minho stops walking and abruptly turns around, leveling Jisung with an unreadable look. Minho scans Jisung’s face, taking in his curious eyes and expectant look and Jisung thinks that must be enough to convince him to elaborate but they just end up standing there a bit longer, like some sort of weird stare-off. Distantly, Jisung thinks again that Minho has pretty eyes, and he’s about to break eye contact when Minho turns back around, walking forward again. 

“Ehhh, I knew most of the others would probably be busy anyway, so I thought why not ask you?” Minho finishes, unsurely, and Jisung feels like he’s missing something. 

“Well, I always do tell myself that I’m good company,” Jisung says, hoping to rid the air between them of whatever just happened. 

“Mhm,” Minho glances at Jisung, raising a skeptical eyebrow, and the tension is cleared. Minho walks Jisung home again and they cheerfully part ways at Jisung’s doorstep, but he still can’t shake away the image of Minho’s stare burning into his soul. Jisung felt happy and re-energized after their trip to the waterfall, but now he just feels a little confused. 

\---

And because Chan had also promised a surprise for all of them, Jisung finds himself in the forest again, though now with the four others and they’re going to the forest heart. On the way there, they try to pester Chan with questions but he only answers them in roundabout ways, much to his amusement and their annoyance. 

“I feel like a parent for a group of bratty children,” Chan mutters, though it’s only fond. 

“Hey, I get that feeling sometimes,” Minho says, slinging an arm around Chan’s shoulders. “Now, just one hint?”

“Nope,” Chan says, grinning triumphantly. It continues like this, with Chan beating around the bush, until they arrive at the forest center. At some point Jisung swears he hears tinkly laughter in his head, like the forest is laughing along with Chan, but maybe he’s imagining things. 

It’s Jisung’s second time here now, and the sight isn’t any less spectacular. The heart is still as lively and it seems like nothing has really changed, so Jisung wonders what the surprise is.

“Okay.” Chan claps his hands together, and feels four pairs of eyes looking at him expectantly. “After our first mission as a group last Friday, I discussed some things over with the forest and we’ve worked out the specifics, so I’d like to present to you…” he dramatically does a mock-drumroll with his hands around air-drumsticks. 

“A new power we’ve been working on,” Chan finishes, and with one smooth flourish of his hand he shoots a puff of light out of it. The light fades into the air, leaving behind only a faint shimmer, like a lingering sunbeam. Unlike the dark magic, instead of leaving the air colder and constricting, it feels like a small burst of warmth and adds life to the atmosphere.

“This is how we’re going to fight the dark magic in the future—with some of our own magic rays,” Chan clarifies. After what we learned from Friday, I’d been talking to the forest on ideas for how to draw the dark magic out of its victims, and we came up with this. It’s like an antidote made up of forest magic that enters the infested animal’s body and fights the dark magic to push it out, where it should quickly die since it’ll be stuck in the air without a vessel to go back into. And just like the dark magic, the animal has to breathe it in for it to work.”

“Wow,” Seungmin says. “This changes things up, a lot.”

“Yeah,” Chan replies. “It makes saving the forest seem a lot less impossible, doesn’t it? Anyway, you guys know the drill.”

The “drill” means that they do what Jisung had done last time—soul sharing with the forest, or something like it. Each of them presses their palms against the heart at the large tree at the forest center, feeling it beat in time with their own. Eyes closed, there’s a rush of color, and the magic flows into them. It leaves Jisung reeling as he blinks his eyes open, feeling simultaneously insignificant compared to the power of the forest and important because he’s been bestowed some of its power, that he’s a little more than just one human in the macrocosm. 

Of course, none of them can resist trying to experiment with their newly gained abilities (sans Chan, who has been harboring this power for a few days now). But like their other powers, they have to work up from the bottom through practice. It’s kind of comical when Changbin aggressively shoves his palms into the air only for a tiny puff of light to come out, but Jisung knows he looks no less stupid. All part of the experience, he supposes. 

“Anyway, the dark magic is spreading even faster,” Chan says, as they make their way back. “With these abilities, I’ve been thinking about clearing an entire area rather than just an animal this time. I think it’s definitely possible and something we should work towards if we want to have any hope of resolving this soon.”

“An entire area?” Jisung asks. Even with this magic, that’s a huge step up from before. 

“We’d start with the smallest area; the one that’s least infested, first,” Chan explains. “Which is the same one we went to last time. The only problem is that the infested animals can travel around and that’s how the magic spreads. It’s almost impossible to treat all the smaller, faster animals like birds. But since I’m in communication with the forest, we’ll have to wait for one of the days where a herd of larger animals—like deer—gathers in the area, and that would be the best time to try and dispel most of the dark magic from the scene.”

“But wait,” Minho suddenly says. “What’s preventing the dark magic from going back into the body once it’s expelled, or trying to go for _us_ instead?”

“We thought about that. So the way we can manipulate the forest’s magic allows us to also directly fight any dark magic in the air with magic from our own hands. Then these magical forces will grapple around with each other until they both evaporate. Kind of like something to preoccupy the dark magic with and shield yourself at the same time.”

“Oh, wow,” Seungmin says again. “This will really help then.”

“Definitely,” Chan agrees. “But remember that this is dark magic we’re dealing with. We don’t know the extent of what it can do, so we still have to be careful. It’s _sneaky_ , and doesn’t know any boundaries. Please be _aware_ of this,” he stresses, and Jisung can’t help the way Chan’s voice catches on some of the words. It’s kind of odd. But before Jisung can ask, Seungmin cuts in with a different question, and soon they’re out of the forest and he’s forgotten about it.


	9. Chapter 9

When Jisung’s head hits the pillow, he dreams.

_He’s wandering the forest alone. He doesn’t remember why he decided to, but he’s fairly deep in and the sun is almost below the horizon, leaving the atmosphere eerie and dark. Then he hears a low sizzling noise, like the sound of something—or someone—hissing gutturally. Jisung stops, tries to back away, but finds that he’s frozen in place. The strange sound gets louder, and Jisung knows that it’s coming from behind the tree in front of him._

This part of the dream has happened many times now. Usually it’ll be someone he knows that steps out from behind the tree—Minho or Chan have appeared often, even Changbin and Seungmin, their eyes unnaturally dull with a dark smoke oozing out of them. Or it’ll be a deer, dead gaze fixed on Jisung and stepping closer and closer until Jisung wakes up, heartbeat pounding out of his chest. 

This time, it’s neither of those. 

_Move, move! Jisung wills himself to take a step back, to pick up a stick or anything to defend himself from his dream terrors, but he can’t. He can never move. He can only watch with bated breath as a creature steps out from behind the oak tree, but this time the figure is small, placing a delicate paw forward._

_“Soonie?” He can speak! But why is she here? Why is she looking at him like—_

_Soonie’s eyes are lifeless. Jisung keeps calling out for her but gets no response, no meow or silvery thoughts filtering into his brain. There’s only that raspy sizzling sound that gets louder as she moves closer. It’s like Soonie’s connection to the forest has been severed, and like the dark magic has infiltrated her instead._

_Pawsteps closer and closer and Jisung can speak but he still can’t move, unable to tear his eyes away from Soonie’s stony gaze. When Soonie reaches Jisung he braces himself for an attack, but she only steps through him, and Jisung feels a chill travel up from his feet at the contact._

_Is this a ghost of Soonie? Or is Jisung the ghost here?_

_As soon as the cat has passed through Jisung, he’s able to move again. Somehow, the frozen spell that had taken over him has disappeared. But when Jisung whirls around, Soonie’s gone. Not even a trace of her, or a trace of the dark smoke, to tell where she went. Jisung stands alone in the forest, and he feels colder and colder and goosebumps are travelling up his spine and—_

The alarm rings. Jisung wakes up to find his blankets all kicked off, probably the reason why he was so cold. He sits up in his bed for a moment, trying to recall the details of his unnerving dream. He’s had a few variations of dreams involving the forest, and maybe it’s just his brain conjuring up random scenarios to entertain itself while Jisung is asleep, but maybe there’s also some importance to it. After all, hadn’t Seungmin mentioned that Jeongin was also having weirdly specific dreams?

If his dreams might correlate to real life, if anything happened to Soonie, though, maybe he can check. 

**[CHAT] very cool forest kids**

**Jisung**

this might be a strange request but<

chan, with your forest connection<

do you have any way of checking up on individual animals<

**Chan**

>Sorry, not really. There’s just too many animals in the forest.

>Why?

**Changbin**

>jisung, what happened? 

**Jisung**

honestly probably nothing but i just gotta check<

do you know soonie?<

**Changbin**

>isn’t that minho’s favorite forest cat lol

**Seungmin**

>Minho has a forest cat???

**Minho**

>Good morning to you Seungmin

>Both she and I’ll have you know that she’s not my cat

>But I like to think we’re good friends

>anyway, go on...

**Jisung**

well, i had a weird creepy dream and she was involved<

and you know, all this dream talk lately<

just checking to make sure she’s still… alive…?<

**Chan**

>Maybe you could go to the forest and check?

>After school is over

>And after your shift at the music shop is over, of course

**Jisung**

dw i know i have a shift today<

yeah i’ll probably do that, thanks though!<

\---

Jisung sits behind the counter of the music shop, one of the rare times that he has it alone to himself. It’s almost too quiet; Changbin’s not working today and though Chan usually stays in one of the back rooms, he’s not at the shop for once—hopefully getting rest, but if Jisung knows Chan, maybe not. 

He expects to sit there in silence, laptop and textbooks laid out in front of him and homework on his mind, until the door opens. By habit, Jisung starts to say, “Welcome to Miroh Music, can I help—”

It’s a familiar face. Jisung stops midway his sentence. “Jeongin?” Then his rather slow brain finally has a revelation. “Wait, are you also Seungmin’s friend Jeongin?”

Jeongin laughs, shiny braces glinting through his smile. “Yeah, you didn’t realize? Well, I guess there could be other Jeongins you thought Seungmin was talking about.”

“I honestly don’t think there are any other Jeongins in the area. For some reason I never made the connection,” Jisung replies. “Your shifts don’t really coincide with mine, so it just never hit. And speaking of shifts, I know it’s not yours today, so… why are you here?”

Jeongin takes his own seat behind the counter. “I heard from Seungmin that you had a strange dream last night, so I thought maybe I’d stop by, and we could talk about it.” 

At that, Jisung brightens up, tedious school assignments temporarily forgotten. “That would be nice. To be honest, though, I’m not sure what to make of my dream. Or if it means anything. But after my shift I was going to go check on Soonie just in case,” Jisung says. 

“Soonie?” Jeongin asks curiously.

“Okay, she’s a cat I’ve talked to multiple times in the forest. I’m not sure how much you know about what we’ve been doing but basically it’s just being able to communicate with certain animals through your mind, in a way? Anyway, so in my dream…” 

Jisung explains his dream to Jeongin, who listens tentatively, head resting on his hand as Jisung talks. But in the end Jeongin can’t think of a better idea than simply going into the forest to see if Soonie’s still fine. Though one of his comments stands out to Jisung: “Unless this hasn’t happened yet.” It throws Jisung off, but Jeongin follows up with another comment and Jisung tucks away the words into his brain to digest later.

No customers arrive through the duration of Jisung’s shift, and Jeongin stays with him until he locks up—handling the key _very_ carefully, because Jisung remembers the entire string of events that he unraveled the last time he wasn’t being careful. Although, now that he thinks about it, Soonie had been one of the catalysts, stealing his key from him to do the forest’s bidding.

Jeongin offers to accompany Jisung into the forest and Jisung willingly obliges—he appreciates the company, though he hopes Chan won’t be upset that he’s letting Jeongin come with him because he’s not part of their group ( _yet_ —Jisung has a suspicion that they’ll be welcoming Jeongin very soon).

Actually, maybe this wasn’t a great idea, in hindsight. Jisung’s used to going into the forest with the others. Minho, Chan, they’re more experienced. They know how to navigate the area to best avoid unwanted encounters. Now, Jisung’s the one with more knowledge, and it’s not a lot. 

But somehow he’s less scared now. Not that he has no qualms about this, but because Jisung’s been into the forest many times in the past month that each trip makes the subsequent one a little less daunting, despite the thoughts of what Jisung might stumble across. Right now, Jisung’s mind map of the forest may not be as clear as that of the others, but he does know what areas to vaguely avoid, and where he might be more likely to find Soonie (that is, under the hopeful assumption that his dream is a coincidence and that the cat’s fine). 

Tucking down feelings of mild apprehension, Jisung pushes a smile on his face and continues to chatter with Jeongin as they enter the forest. The forest is huge, and Soonie is a cat who can be elusive if need be, but if she’s in there somewhere hopefully she can sense Jisung’s worried presence and they can find each other. Worst case, he could go to the forest heart and try and find Soonie there, but Jisung’s going to go to the area where he first saw Minho—where Soonie first led him to Minho—because she seems to frequent that area a lot. It’s not too deep into the forest, but Jisung will still be careful because, if anything, the past weeks have taught him to expect the unexpected. 

But something strange happens when Jisung goes into the forest with Jeongin. The animals seem to give them a little more distance, darting away before they can be seen; before they would only skirt away only if Jisung got too close. It seems as if the animals are a bit frightened. Of Jisung? Of Jeongin? Or maybe they’re just on edge. It unsettles Jisung, but he pushes forward until he’s in the general area of where he hopes to find Soonie. 

…Well, Jisung didn’t need to be so concerned. After a while of Jisung and Jeongin wandering around the forest, Soonie comes stepping out from behind a tree. Jisung doesn’t know how it’s possible, but the cat looks both amused and irked at the same time. Though, Soonie won’t come too close either. Something is throwing off the animals today. 

_Hello, Jisung. Why are you here today? And who’s this?_ Soonie asks. 

Now that Soonie’s here, Jisung’s dream seems pointless. _Oh, I had a bad dream about you, and I just thought… anyway, doesn’t matter now. And this is Jeongin, he’s a… friend?_ Jisung replies. Does this mean Jeongin’s dreams are meaningless, too? 

But Jeongin’s mouth has fallen open when Jisung glances over to bring up the subject. 

“I see what you mean about the cat ‘speaking,’” Jeongin says. “This feels so weird…”

Jisung can only assume Soonie’s talking to Jeongin. “What did she say?” He asks Jeongin, but Jeongin is still occupied with the conversation in his head to notice Jisung. 

_Your friend Jeongin is definitely not a stranger to the forest,_ Soonie finally tells him. _He also has a strange aura—not necessarily a dark or bad one, but merely strange. Perhaps he should visit the forest heart sometime. If he’s here he’ll probably be a good addition to the team._

So...is that the reason why the animals seemed so skittish today? 

_Actually, Seungmin mentioned that Jeongin has been to the forest heart before, but that was a long time ago,_ Jisung says. Maybe he should’ve asked Jeongin about that, but he’d forgotten to. And to bring it up now might seem like he’s prying too much. 

_Interesting,_ Soonie muses. _Well, another trip to the heart would probably still be worthwhile, for him. Not now, but maybe another time soon?_

 _Okay, thanks Soonie. And I’m glad you’re doing well,_ Jisung says, and Soonie does a slight roll of her eyes that seems almost humanistic. Jisung laughs and tries to pet Soonie, though she darts away, as expected. 

_See you some other time, Jisung,_ she says, and she’s gone. 

“I guess this was probably the most interesting thing you’ve experienced lately,” Jisung jokes, turning to Jeongin. “Did you enjoy communicating telepathically with a cat?”

Jeongin nods, wide-eyed. “Although I’ve seen some fairly interesting things in my dreams recently,” he adds. “But this is definitely cooler.”

“Oh yeah,” Jisung replies, as they start heading back. “I meant to ask—what sort of things do you dream about? Seungmin said we were in your dreams before, and in the forest.”

“Hmmm,” Jeongin thinks for a moment. “It’s nothing too weird, but lately I’ve seen a lot of you guys and a couple others in my dreams. The other people… I feel like I vaguely recognize them? The noteworthy dreams always take place in the forest, and there are usually animals around. Some of the animals look kind of scary though, especially the deer…” Jeongin trails off, and Jisung feels like there’s more to it than Jeongin’s letting on. Even with what Jeongin’s told him and from what he’s heard from Seungmin, this information is oddly specific, considering Jeongin shouldn’t know anything about infested animals, not to mention the deer. Jeongin himself is friendly and cheerful and Jisung can’t find anything wrong with him, but Jisung also feels like he’s hiding something. Why does he have (as Soonie put it) a ‘strange’ aura? Jisung tells himself to talk to Seungmin or Chan later about it. 

Regardless, Jeongin is still nice company, and Jisung makes sure to thank him before they part ways. And regardless, Soonie is alive and okay, so even if Jisung doesn’t enjoy his nightmares he can at least sleep a little more soundly knowing that his nightmares don’t transfer over into real life. 

\---

The next week passes by in a blur, with the group making preparations to properly fight the dark magic this time. Along with their regular meetings to discuss plans, they also make regular trips to the forest to practice, working with small infested animals to draw out the dark magic and nurse the critters back to health. The power that the forest has given them proves to be incredibly helpful, and makes them less worried about how their first big quest is going to go. Jisung brings up his and Jeongin’s trip to the forest with Chan and Seungmin, and they agree to talk to Jeongin, though not until after their expedition—because pushing back the dark magic and being able to clear one area has been the main priority on everyone’s mind. 

So Jisung complies and prepares; his days consist of school, music shop shifts, meetings and practice trips to the forest with others, homework, and sleep (and some more nightmares, though also some better dreams, now). Jisung doesn’t really have much time to think about some of Jeongin’s stranger words, or what Soonie had told him about Jeongin’s aura. He also doesn’t really have time to mull over the way his heart seems to grow even more jittery around Minho when they’re together, though he’ll occasionally think about that day at the waterfall, sometimes when he’s laying in bed trying to fall asleep. 

All of them are kind of on edge, waiting for a relayed message through Chan from the forest regarding when they’d be able to best catch a large group of infested animals unaware. 

And then the day does arrive. After school, Jisung’s phone dings incessantly as Chan spams the chat to prepare themselves. A herd of deer gathering in an area close to town to graze, and the forest has sensed that there’s a lot of them, if the size of the dark magic presence that the forest senses is accurate. 

It scares Jisung because he can barely stomach the thought of one pair of those swirling, blank eyes, directed at him. To have an entire group of infested deer… 

But Jisung keeps telling himself that he’s ready, that _they’re_ ready. That is, until Chan stops them behind the shelter of a cluster of bushes and Jisung peeks out and almost blanches. The area isn’t as open; he has to squint behind trees and other vegetation, but a quick scan shows that there’s maybe around twenty deer, and many of them look young and strong. Jisung swears that one of the tall stags is the same one he locked eyes with in the forest a while back. The same deer that gave him nightmares afterward. He gulps and ducks back into cover before he can make eye contact with any of them. 

“Everyone got the plan down?” Chan asks, and there’s a series of nods. Jisung clutches Minho’s hand, even though both of them are sweating through their palms. Seungmin’s holding Minho’s other hand, because the three of them are going to stay camouflaged for the time being, while Chan and Changbin make the first moves. 

“Okay, everyone take a deep breath—we’ve got this,” Chan says. “Whatever happens, try and stay calm to let the magic flow through your body as freely as possible.”

“Okay,” Seungmin affirms. “Three, two, one…” 

Seungmin summons an illusion: it’s himself, stepping into view on the opposite side of the area. At once, a few of the deer perk up, their ears twitching to locate the sound. Many stop grazing on the grey, dead, grass. Then heads go up, and all attention is on the illusion of Seungmin.

One of the larger infested deer takes initiative, charging towards the illusion only to watch the healthy deer vanish in front of its face. The deer skids to a stop, other deer watching. They’ve picked up that something’s wrong. 

Chan steps out into the forest. Not an illusion; actual, human Chan. Meanwhile, Seungmin creates an illusion of Chan on the opposite side. While the deer take a moment to assess the situation, looking between real and illusion Chan, Changbin reveals himself too, darting forward and shooting the first blow at one of the larger deer. A blast of light leaves his fingers and rushes toward the deer, entering through its mouth before any dark magic in the deer can attempt to stop it. That deer is left standing confused, as it’s now harboring both forest magic and dark magic, and the two forces are battling it out inside its body. If the forest magic really is working, the dark magic should be expelled from its system soon. 

But… only one down, and many more to go. And it seems as if the dark magic has an idea of its own. As if by telepathic communication, the remaining infested deer spring into action at once, splitting into smaller groups to chase Chan, Changbin, and the illusion. 

Chan and Changbin won’t be able to outrun the deer, so Jisung steps into backup Chan while Minho dashes towards Changbin. Seungmin slowly steps away from Minho and ducks behind an area that’s particularly concealed with healthy plant life so he can use his energy to continue to cast illusions and hopefully stay hidden. 

Meanwhile, Jisung almost forgets which of the Chans is the real Chan. They both look identical, but that’s only a good testament towards Seungmin’s capabilities. Real Chan is firing repeated blasts of light towards the deer as they get closer, and Jisung jumps out from the side to catch two of the deer unaware. Illusion Chan gets backup from an equally fake Jisung that Seungmin summons from that side of the forest, and Jisung focuses on trying to fend off the deer rather than doing a double take at the literal replica of himself. The illusions shoot magic, but that too is an illusion and won’t actually be effective. 

They’re able to shoot a couple of the deer in the area before Jisung and Chan double back into a thick area of the forest where it’ll be harder for the deer to follow them, trying to escape the sound of the deer on their heels. 

“Seungmin, illusion here!” Chan calls, and back out in the action their illusions vanish. Seungmin redirects his energy towards making illusions of Chan and Jisung exit the bushes that real-Chan and real-Jisung just ran into. Then Chan and Jisung skirt around the perimeter of the area and reenter the more open area, where their illusions previously were. In short, they switched spots with their illusions. 

Jisung thinks he hears Changbin or Minho also shouting out to Seungmin, and he risks a quick glance out of the corner of his eye. Luckily, Minho and Changbin seem to be faring better, especially as Minho is able to vanish in and out of the air with his camouflage, only appearing to redirect his energy to shoot a blast of forest magic at a deer. 

Jisung focuses back on his own task and almost screams because one of the infested deer is right in front of him. Without thinking, Jisung runs backward as fast as his legs can take him and throws up his hands in front of him, letting the magic leave his fingers and aiming towards the deer. The magic enters the deer through its nostrils, and it has the deer coming to a startled halt. But in that moment, as the deer stops right there, Jisung makes eye contact. _Oh hell no._ His nightmares are going to come back in full throttle, he thinks, because if he thought eye contact that one time from a distance was bad, it’s nothing compared to being maybe only a foot away from those dark, blank pupils. 

Even though there’s also forest magic inside the deer now, the force of the dark magic is still strong, and Jisung feels the pull from the deer’s swirling eyes, drawing all of his coherent thoughts from his brain like an abyss. He feels himself seeping away, his previously clear intentions slipping from his grasp, like his identity… his _soul_ … is being drawn out. 

“Look away! Jisung, LOOK AWAY!” Chan screams at him and the sound of his name finally gets him out of the trance. Jisung uses the faint trace of resolve he has left to jerk away. At once, everything comes flooding back to him, and Jisung gulps. The deer may be more or less frozen as the forces battle it out inside its body, but that does not mean that the forces inside its body are powerless. 

Jisung has only a few seconds to recollect his thoughts before he’s rushing to help Chan, who has already stopped most of the deer in this group. Together, they incapacitate the final two deer that have been chasing them. 

The result of this is odd. More than odd—creepy. As they run to take on another group of deer, Jisung takes a brief second to look back. There are six deer, standing still and dark and lifeless like statues, their bodies rendered frozen in various stages of motion as the forest magic tries to expel the dark magic inside each of them. 

Jisung and Chan join forces with their illusions, seeing as Minho and Changbin seem to have the situation on their side mostly locked down. But as Jisung and Chan refocus on this group of deer, the very first deer that they’ve stopped are finally being freed, the dark magic expelled from their bodies and the forest magic taking up its own defensive residence. That means they have to avoid any dark magic in the air—one breath of that, and they’ll be screwed. 

But it’s easier now; Jisung sends a separate stream of light from his hands toward some of the darkness floating in the air and the two clouds of magic evaporate as they eat at each other. Honestly, Jisung would just wave his hands everywhere and aim at everything, but he has to save his energy, especially since he’ll probably have to help heal some of the deer as they try to recover after finally being in control of their bodies again after so long.

For now, though, they have to eviscerate the rest of the dark magic here. 

One deer lets out an ear-splitting wail that makes the hair on Jisung’s arms stand on end. A few others join in, creating a cacophony that has Jisung wanting to shy away. He can’t tell if it’s coming from the deer that have already been stilled, whether they’re in pain because of the war inside their bodies, or whether it’s from the deer that are still full of dark magic, using the wails as a method of distraction or attack. 

Jisung jerks away when he feels something bump against his back, but it’s just Chan. They end up back-to-back, which helps prevent any deer from escaping either of their blind spots. Somewhere in the midst of it all, Jisung sees Changbin and Minho fighting the deer on their side before both of them vanish. A few seconds later, and Minho reappears with Changbin in his grip. They face off the last few deer all-together, and even Seungmin steps out from his hiding spot to help, all of his illusions now gone. 

Once the last deer is stopped, the forest is finally silent. A few deer that have finally rid their bodies of the dark forces that have gripped them for so long are stumbling off to the side, or taking slow, shaky steps as they start to regain control of themselves. The other deer are eerily stock-still, and Jisung has to remind himself to look away lest he catches the eyes of any of them.

Beneath them, the grass is still dusty grey. Jisung shoots an experimental puff down and watches some of the vibrant green return to a small patch of grass. It’s not much. Chan had said they couldn’t really do anything about the plants except let life take its course. In the summer, the grass will dry out and die, taking the dark magic with it, and new healthy grass will spring up instead. Provided none of the deer come back to graze on the dead grass (and they wouldn’t want to anyway, not when they could find glades upon glades of green grass if they only walked a little farther), the dark magic wouldn’t be able to spread. As for the trees… they also don’t pose much of a risk since trees can hardly move sans the slow crawl of growing branches. The forest had reassured them that the dark magic wouldn’t really be able to spread itself out through the trees. At least not over a short period of time; that’s why the animals are their main concern.

Jisung wanders over to one of the recovering deer. Most of them have no surface injuries, so there’s nothing for him to heal, and he ends up patting them, running his fingers over their backs instead. They don’t run away, either because they do not yet have the energy to or because they’ve witnessed far scarier things than Jisung. And the deer probably know Jisung isn’t out to kill them, unlike a certain supernatural being that used to be inside their bodies. 

The others comfort the deer in a similar manner, though both the humans and the animals flinch whenever the dark magic is expelled from yet another deer’s body. Then either Chan or Changbin ends up shooting the magic with a burst from his hands, and the temporary threat’s gone. 

It’s kind of anticlimactic, but the resulting peacefulness in the forest and the peace of mind that they now have is a fresh breath of air. 

Needless to say, they all (even Chan) sleep soundly that night—both from the exhaustion of channeling magic through their bodies continuously for so long and from the thought that they do have what it takes to help the forest after all.

\---

Seungmin is depositing books in his locker when two familiar faces surround him on either side. 

“Hey, Seungmin,” Jeongin says to his left, cheerful as usual. To his right, Hyunjin offers a similar greeting. 

“What’s up?” Seungmin asks, turning around and feeling rather intimidated despite being good friends with both of them. 

“Nothing bad,” Jeongins says, easing his worries. “Well, nothing _too_ bad, I guess,” he corrects himself. 

Which probably means it’s nothing Seungmin will like. But Seungmin prefers ripping the band-aid off as opposed to drawing out the news. “Just tell me what it is, Jeongin.”

They head to their usual lunch area as Jeongin explains. 

“I had another dream,” Jeongin begins, slowly. “And Hyunjin was in it, again. We were all in the forest and we could all shoot magical stuff from our hands, and it felt exhilaratingly _real_ and I’m starting to get the sense that I am connected to all this in some way. And I’m pretty sure Hyunjin is too—there’s a reason I keep seeing him with you and the music shop guys in the forest.”

Seungmin frowns. The last thing he wants to do is involve his friends in this matter. “But didn’t you say that you went with Jisung to confirm one of his dreams the other day and found that his dream didn’t mean anything?”

“Yes, but,” Jeongin looks frustrated. “I just… I think my dreams are _different_. I think both Hyunjin and I are involved in this somehow, and based on what you’ve told me about the magic then ignoring it would turn out badly,” he explains. 

“Besides, we want to help,” Hyunjin adds. “And Jeongin was telling me that when he did go into the forest with Jisung a magical talking cat told him that he should go back to the forest heart,” 

“Magical talking cat?—oh… what’s his name… Soonie?” Seungmin says. “You didn’t tell me this before?”

“You were in a rush! I just updated you on Jisung because you asked,” Jeongin says. 

“Okay,” Seungmin huffs. He can’t really get mad; he doesn’t like arguments to begin with. He just wants his friends to be safe, but… 

“Okay,” Seungmin says again, reluctantly acquiescing. “All three of us can take a visit to the forest heart then.”

Jeongin cheers and Hyunjin laughs at him because he probably knew Seungmin couldn’t say no anyway. But Seungmin doesn’t see the trepidation lying behind Jeongin’s upbeat facade. A telltale sign of someone hiding a secret.


	10. Chapter 10

When Seungmin said he’d take his friends to the forest, he didn’t necessarily think that it would result in a transfer of magic right then and there. But it’s not like he can do anything about it after the fact. Hyunjin and Jeongin are both part of the group now, which means more hands and more help but also more headaches for Seungmin. 

Especially since Seungmin’s starting to get the sense that Jeongin knows far more than he’s letting on, given their visit to the forest heart yesterday. The forest had insisted on lending some of its magic to both Hyunjin and Jeongin once they had arrived, telling them that any additional help was much appreciated. Hyunjin had almost fainted on the spot, because unlike Jeongin and Seungmin he’d known very little about the forest and magic and being able to receive such powers. And Jeongin… Jeongin had been calm as he stepped up to the tree and temporarily opened up his soul to the forest to receive magic. But that wasn’t the strange part. The strange part was that the forest had acted oddly during the supposed transfer of magic. 

The thing is, Seungmin had never been the outsider during these exchanges. He’d only been the one with his palms against the tree as he felt the forest’s heart beating with him. He’d never actually witnessed the transfer of magic. So when he had seen Hyunjin boldly step up to the tree first, Seungmin was transfixed by what he saw—almost like Hyunjin’s body had been emanating a rainbow of colors as the magic flowed inside him. 

But when Jeongin pressed his palms against the tree, Seungmin saw a flash. At first, the same radiant glow, but it was quickly muted. And Jeongin stepped back away from the tree a moment later, claiming that the magic had been transferred very quickly, but Seungmin has his suspicions. Even though Seungmin himself has only connected with the heart of the forest a few times, he’s pretty sure that receiving magical powers from the forest should take longer, especially considering the forest was granting Jeongin and Hyunjin not one but _two_ abilities—first their unique ability and then the power that they all had of being able to physically channel and shoot out forest magic as well. 

So… Seungmin has his suspicions. He’s known Jeongin for too long to see that there’s something Jeongin’s hiding, but he’s also known him for too long to feel that Jeongin should be the one to tell him when he feels ready. After being friends for years, he’d like to hope that he’s gained Jeongin’s trust. Seungmin doesn’t _think_ Jeongin’s hiding a dark secret, but… in the past few months, he’s seen too much to cross his fingers on any thought. Seungmin can only hope that if Jeongin has been keeping something from the others then the time when he opens up will come, and soon. 

In the meantime, Seungmin’s helping Hyunjin and Jeongin learn how to use their magic properly. Well, what they have so far. Like Seungmin and the rest of their forest group when they first started out, Hyunjin and Jeongin don’t know what their unique abilities are yet; they’ll have to slowly discover and hone them on their own. But Seungmin can at least help them with channeling the magic properly so that they’ll be able to fight alongside the others on their next mission when they go to clear the dark magic from a larger area. 

\---

A couple days after they visit the forest, Chan has Seungmin drag his friends to meet the others. That’s when Seungmin’s suspicions are confirmed. 

He already knows that Jeongin is familiar with the music store trio, even if he hardly interacts with them regularly, because he does occasional shifts at the store. According to Jeongin, he knows Chan and Jisung fairly well, but has almost never seen Changbin during his shifts. So Jeongin has yet to properly meet Changbin, and also Minho, whom he has yet to be introduced to.

Correction: Changbin and Minho, whom Jeongin _should_ have yet to be introduced to. But both times, Seungmin can’t help but carefully watch his friend’s reactions and notice the subtle things: the way Jeongin starts abnormally stumbling his words before quickly covering up, the way his eyes widen and his pupils dilate before he schools his expression of shock back into a friendly smile.

Jeongin later mentions that he’s seen glimpses of both of the two around because the forest group always met in the music shop and Chan would always place Jeongin on shift at that time. Which is reasonable, Seungmin supposes, but it still doesn’t exactly explain Jeongin’s strange behavior up to the interactions. But for now, Seungmin respects his friend’s privacy and doesn’t pry any further. He knows that Jeongin’s definitely hiding something—it’ll be his friend’s job to tell him exactly what.

\---

The sun is just starting to peek through the cracks in the blinds when Jisung’s phone screeches loudly, startling him awake (from an actual, not scary-as-heck, dream!). Things have almost been _too_ nice because lately he’s been having fewer nightmares and more dreams. Albeit some weird dreams, but nothing that makes him wake up sweating or scared of falling back asleep. He thinks maybe being reassured that his nightmares were just ridiculous scenarios his brain was conjuring up and that confirming they had no connection to the forest helped stop them. 

Though… _what the heck was that?_ Jisung wants to bury his face into the pillow because he may not be in a sweat from any nightmares but his body still feels like it’s on fire, from whatever all that was. His phone continues screaming at him but Jisung has to lie there for a moment.

In his dream, he had been sitting across from Minho in one of the library rooms, the magical map of the forest splayed out on the table between them. Jisung had been staring down at the map trying to trace out some sort of path, but he had felt Minho’s gaze burning into his forehead. When he had looked up, Minho had been just staring at him and dream Jisung had tried to laugh it off with some weird joke but then Minho hadn’t laughed with him and had instead leaned over the table and hooked a hand under Jisung’s chin and his face had gotten closer until there was almost no space between then and then just when Jisung had thought Minho was going to kiss him he had been woken up by his phone. A part of Jisung wishes that he hadn’t been woken up right then and there, and another part of him wants himself to stop thinking about it. 

So that’s going into the list of things Jisung won’t be telling anyone about. 

Jisung tries not too hard to think about how vivid those last dreaming moments were as his brain suddenly reminds him why he had been woken up. The room’s silent now, though, his phone ceased in its ringing. 

… for a few seconds. Then the ringing starts again. Or rather, less ringing and more screaming; it’s the specific ringtone Jisung had set for just this scenario—a recording of Changbin yelling at him to wake up. Thankfully not _too_ loudly because his parents are still sleeping. And the scenario entails magic fighting in the forest at… Jisung checks the time on his phone screen as he accepts the call… seven in the morning on a Saturday he had expected to sleep in.

“Forest?” Jisung asks as he picks up the call. 

“Yup,” Chan says. “Hopefully you weren’t up too late last night. There’s lots of deer and other animals gathering at patch 3.” They had labelled the four areas of dark magic (though now three) by severity, with this one being the smallest. If you could be at the music shop as soon as possible, that would be great.”

“Hopefully _you_ weren’t up too late last night,” Jisung replies, to which Chan only gives a wry laugh and hangs up on him. 

Jisung wishes he could go back to sleep but he doesn’t really have a choice when it comes to matters like this. _May my Saturday sleep rest in peace,_ he thinks, pulling on pants and shoving on a sweatshirt. Phone in hand, he tiptoes downstairs (to avoid waking his parents and answering unwanted questions) and grabs a slice of bread that he sticks in his mouth as he slips on his shoes. Then he’s out the door and heading to the shop, munching on his slice of bread as he thumbs through his phone. 

Their forest chat has more notifications—complaints from Jeongin and Hyunjin asking if they always fight magic this early in the morning (it will be their first time, after all), a deadpan response from Minho saying that they normally go even earlier, and an irritated reply from Seungmin telling the two to ignore Minho. Chan, ever the responsible adult, tells them all to just get to the music shop faster as he doesn’t know how long the dark-magic-possessed animals will stick around in the area. Jisung smiles to himself at the interaction before Minho’s snarky text involuntarily draws his mind back to his dream and Jisung thinks that he is so screwed. He better still be able to look Minho in the eye today. 

Jisung shoots his parents a text that says telling them not to worry and that he’s just gone to the music store. It’s not a _complete_ lie, anyway; Jisung shows up at the store twenty minutes later alongside Seungmin—he’d ran into him on the way there. Chan and the two latest additions to their group are already there, though Hyunjin looks rather disgruntled. Jeongin is cheery despite his complaints to the chat. Minho and Changbin show up a few minutes later, and together they head out. 

“So what _exactly_ should we be expecting?” Hyunjin asks. 

“You didn’t explain what we’re doing?” Chan whirls around on Seungmin. 

“No! I did, just not in detail,” Seungmin defends. “Hyunjin, I literally did tell you most of what to expect. And we’ve been practicing throughout the week!”

“Okay, but like… still, what are we supposed to do, outside of blast scary animals and avoid the stuff that comes out of them?” Hyunjin asks. 

“Eloquent,” Seungmin mutters. Jisung can’t tell if that’s just how Seungmin is or if he’s genuinely in a worse mood than usual, but he does see Jeongin subtly leaving him more space as they walk. 

“Avoid their eyes,” Jisung reminds the two new recruits. “As in, do not make eye contact with them in any scenario, even when you think you’ve fought them.” He can’t stress this enough.

“Also, don’t be scared when they freeze up after you shoot them,” Minho adds. “That’s a good thing—even if it seems like they’re lifeless, their bodies are working to rid themselves of the dark magic.”

“Oh! And you don’t have to just avoid the dark magic that comes out of the animals. If it’s lingering in the air, you can shoot that too and that should neutralize it,” Changbin offers. 

“So Seungmin isn’t actually going to fight with us?” Jeongin asks. 

“For the most part, not exactly—but he’ll be doing a lot of work from the sides casting illusions for us, which is crucial,” Chan says. “Just make sure when you’re fighting to look after yourself first, especially since this is your first time. Chances are that we can take care of ourselves just fine.”

“Okay,” Jeongin nods firmly, setting his jaw in determination. Jisung notices a faraway look starting to settle his eyes and wonders what Jeongin’s thinking about. 

The group falls into a comfortable silence, and Jisung feels surprisingly calm. On the way there, they stop to help a few stray animals—removing the dark magic from a family of chipmunks with particularly vacant looks in their eyes, and helping recover a woodpecker whose tree had been overrun by the dark substance. 

It’s a longer walk to the corrupted grazing site this time—the forest encroaches on the eastern borders of their town and this patch is moreso on the west side of the woods, so they cut through the forest heart on the way there. Jeongin and Hyunjin’s eyes light up at the sight of the beautiful forest center again, and Jisung can’t help the way seeing the area so lively makes him inexplicably happier too. Even Seungmin doesn’t make a sarcastic remark for the rest of the trip. 

Once they arrive, Seungmin is quick to pull his two friends behind the shelter of healthy vegetation, where he slowly runs down the plan with them again so they don’t get overwhelmed. Hyunjin and Jeongin curiously peer out from behind the bushes at the infested deer and all the deadness and Seungmin carefully explains what they’re looking at. Jisung can’t help but feel a sense of respect for Seungmin because his actions indicate just how much he cares for his friends, even if his words sometimes don’t. 

After Seungmin’s done, the groups split up again and go towards opposite areas. Jisung and Chan take Jeongin with them, and Minho and Changbin take Hyunjin with them. Seungmin flashes them a thumbs up from where he’s safely nestled in the brush. 

As with before, the first illusions enter the area, drawing the attention of the grazing deer. Jisung sees Jeongin’s eyes widening and he chuckles to himself because he had done the same mere weeks ago when he first witnessed Seungmin creating illusions of people. Though he’s admittedly just a little surprised too, because this time Seungmin’s first illusion victims are Jisung and Changbin—they had lost in a game of rock-paper-scissors. 

“Sup,” illusion-Jisung says casually, kicking up the dirt, and Jisung snorts from his crouching position next to Chan and Jeongin. He wonders when he ever did anything like that, or if Seungmin just thought it would be a Jisung-like thing to do. Seungmin is at least probably getting a laugh out of it in his neck of the woods. 

Though now isn’t exactly the time for such random thoughts. Chan makes the signal to go and he and Jisung dart out from behind their cover, Jeongin on their heels. They shoot a few blasts while the deer are still confused before retreating back and trying to lose any deer following them in the denser shrubbery. 

Now that they have the deer’s attention, the real battle begins. 

Run out, stay on the lookout, aim and shoot. Glance to make sure nothing’s behind him, then a cursory look to check on the others. Even though Jeongin and Hyunjin are there this time to help them, Jisung feels like he’s working harder because he has to help Jeongin more. Jeongin seems to be fairly accurate with his bursts, but a bit slower at keeping on his feet and staying attuned to what’s going on in all directions around him. Once, Jeongin almost gets charged by a deer that’s coming up behind him, but luckily Chan is there to stop it. 

Still, Jisung thinks they’d likely be a little worse off without the additional help of those two—at least they have some extra hands and force on their side to keep each other protected against the magic that only has malicious intentions. 

Jisung starts losing track of time at some point, running through the motions of weaving around and shooting. But across the way, a shout from Changbin draws his focus towards the edge of clearing. 

A snout peeps out from behind a tree, followed by striking antlers and tentative step forward of a long leg. A deer—but not infested, its eyes shining in the little sunlight that has been able to penetrate the darkness of the clearing. 

Another deer steps into view. Then another. Between Jisung dodging and shooting the infested deer, an entire group of healthy deer have arrived at the edge of the glade, taking in the sight before them. 

_They’re here to help,_ a voice says in his head, and Jisung registers it as Chan. Out of the corner of his eye, Jisung sees Jeongin and Hyunjin both whirl around in surprise. They knew Chan could communicate with the forest but weren’t aware he could telepathically communicate with them as well. 

_Sorry for the lack of the warning,_ Chan tells them. He raises a friendly hand towards the healthy deer, like a signal that they’re free to enter. _I did tell them to stay wary of the dark magic, since we don’t want it invading any of their bodies a second time._

Almost as quickly as the healthy deer have Chan’s approval, they’ve dispersed themselves throughout the glade. Jisung watches in fascination as the deer fight each other, headbutting with antlers and making it harder for the dark magic to reach any of the humans. 

To be honest, seeing the deer physically fight each other is terrifying, and Jisung’s reminded of the vigour and strength that a healthy deer has and could use—against him, if they were so inclined. Luckily, they’re on the side of the forest, so that isn’t a worry. 

And… Jisung thinks these might be the deer they rescued last time, coming to aid them now. It helps immensely; Jisung has less to focus on and can direct his energy to channeling his own magic into bursts to shoot at the infested deer rather than also trying to be aware of all of his surroundings at once. Jeongin and Hyunjin have fallen into a sense of rhythm too, and soon the number of infested deer in the forest diminish from dozens to only a handful. 

At this point, Seungmin’s stopped casting illusions and all seven of them are fighting in the same area alongside the deer they helped and against what’s left of the dark magic living inside the other deer. Chan darts between infested and uninfested deer, and besides Jeongin, who’s right next to him, Jisung occasionally sees Minho flitting in and out of sight, using his camouflage to its full extent. 

But possibly Jisung lets his guard down too much, or he’s grown too weary from directing a constant flow of magic outside. One second there’s a deer accompanied by a surrounding swirl of dark magic running at him and Jisung takes a step back, preparing a blast to fire at the deer. The next second he hears both Chan and Minho shouting at him to be careful but it’s too late because he feels himself losing his balance and flying back. In his mind, the thought registers that when he tried to step back he hit his heel on a rock or branch or something lodged in the ground. 

Jisung braces himself for his back to hit the dirt and thinks that it’ll at least be cushioned by grass, even if that grass is dead and overrun by the presence of dark magic. 

But instead Jisung lands in _arms._ Two pairs of arms, to be exact. When Jisung blinks up he sees Minho and Hyunjin looking over him on either side. _Chan don’t come running here I’m fine,_ Jisung sends a quick message, because he knows how Chan thinks. 

“When did you get here?” Jisung asks Hyunjin. Because Jisung had been aware that Minho was somewhere in the area, but the last time Jisung saw Hyunjin he was on the other side of the crowd of fighting deer and humans. 

“Uh.” Hyunjin stands up nervously, leaving Jisung’s full weight in Minho’s arms. “I don’t know,” Hyunjin continues, sounding like he’s in a panic. “I just saw you falling and I ran… and I shouldn’t have been able to do that.”

“Hey, are you okay though?” Minho asks Jisung, slowly propelling him upright. _Minho has strong arms,_ Jisung thinks, and clamps down the thought because they’re still in the middle of a fight.

“My heart rate is probably over the top from that near-fall, but other than that I’m fine. Thanks to both of you,” he shoots them a grateful smile. Then: “Hyunjin, behind you!” Jisung shoots a blast behind Hyunjin, saving him from a backful of antlers. 

“Oh my god, I need to be more careful,” Hyunjin replies, turning to the now-frozen buck behind him and looking even more frazzled. 

“On the other hand, I think you’ve discovered what power the forest granted you. There’s no human way you could run that far that quickly,” Minho says, raising an eyebrow. “No need to panic about it, but right now we should really stop talking and finish this first.”

“Right.” Hyunjin mock-salutes, and Jisung watches him speed away and that indeed is very fast. 

“As for you, I know there’s a lot going on but watch where you step. I almost had a heart attack,” Minho is only half-joking, giving Jisung’s shoulders a comforting rub before he vanishes back into the fight. And, yeah. Jisung’s not going to make the same mistake twice. He resolves to not let his guard down too much next time, even if the threat is dwindling. 

Back into the fight, then. Though there’s not much left to do. While Jisung was busy tripping over rocks and Minho and Hyunjin came to help, the others were still fighting, and Jisung spends a moment searching for a deer that isn’t frozen or healthy. He gets a blast at one of the last remaining uninfested deer and allows his hands to fall. The scene is really bizarre now—deer that are perfectly fine intermingling with deer that are frozen and deer that are starting to regain control again, all in one scattered clump in the forest clearing. Jisung freaks out when he catches the eyes of one deer for a moment, only to realize that there’s no harm being done. Just a normal deer, warmly regarding him and he emits a relieved sigh. 

Changbin pulls him to the side where there’s a young buck coughing out a dark substance. This must be in the early stages before the dark magic has fully taken control of his body, and Changbin is helping to draw out the magic before it can do further damage. However, the deer is injured, and Jisung looks at the multiple parallel cuts in its back. 

“Oh no, who hurt you?” Jisung asks, bending down to inspect the wounds closer. Up close, he can see that the cuts are fresh and fairly deep. 

“One of the possessed deer raked its antlers along this guy’s back,” Changbin tells him, grimacing.

Jisung spends his time healing the wound, careful not to let too much of his energy escape at once. Once he’s done, Chan pulls him over to a couple more deer that have been injured fighting, though thankfully not as bad. Jisung has used his healing magic enough now to take care of these deer fairly quickly, but he notices Chan and Minho warily watching him when they think he’s not looking. Jisung is grateful for their concern, but he’s learned his lesson using his magic recklessly, and is deliberate in the way he lets the magic flow out of him. 

“Good job today, everyone! We’re making solid progress now, and it seems like we’ll be able to restore the forest sooner than I thought,” Chan says, grinning. “And don’t mind me.” He finally stops side-eyeing Jisung and goes off to congratulate all the deer that came to help, maybe speaking to them telepathically as he sends them back on their way out of the dead clearing. Kinda odd watching a guy just nodding at deer, but Jisung hasn’t seen Chan this happy or carefree in a while, so whatever he’s doing, Jisung decides to leave him too it. After finishing with the wounded deer, Jisung heads towards the rest of the group off to a shaded area on the side, where the grass and trees are still vibrantly-colored.

“Wow, I feel so drained,” Jeongin says, flopping down into a patch of green grass with no regard as to getting his clothes and hair dirty.

“Didn’t know magic could be so tiring,” Hyunjin agrees, dropping to the ground beside him, but choosing to sit instead of lie down. 

“Though you basically became Sonic,” Seungmin points out. “You were probably using a lot more energy because of that.”

“Oh yeah, what was that?” Jeongin looks at Hyunjin, wide-eyed. 

“The forest did give us additional powers. Innie, you haven’t discovered yours yet, have you?” 

“No…” Jeongin looks away, and Jisung can’t tell if he’s sad, or something else. The look on his face is indiscernible. 

It’s somewhat comical how they barely react when a frozen deer regurgitates a spell of dark magic, and how one of them will stick out an arm and nonchalantly fire at that magic to neutralize it. In the distance, Chan is still wandering around the deer that came to help—it seems like he’s intent on thanking every one. Jisung warms at the thought. 

Jisung lowers himself down next to Jeongin and lies down against the grass, deciding that he doesn’t really care that much about the dirt either. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough. Besides, it took all of us a while.” The sun is hitting him at just the wrong angle, and Jisung lifts an arm over his face to shield his eyes, soaking in the warmth but not wanting to stare into it. 

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Jeongin says. “It’s not like I’m helpless anyway since I can still do this.” He produces a small puff of light in his hands. 

A shadow falls over him and Jisung lowers his arm to see Minho standing next to him, head effectively blocking out the sun and making it appear as if he has a halo. Not that Minho’s looks put him that far from actually being an angel, anyway. 

Minho is smiling fondly down at him, the corners of both his mouth and his eyes turning up in a way that makes him look so pretty, and that combined with the sun radiating around him makes Jisung wants to bury his face into the dirt. How can a smile make him feel so giddy inside, and send his heart into a frenzy? Jisung sends a smile back and hope his inner turmoil doesn’t show. Truthfully though, he’s been entertaining the thought for a while now—to just confess and get it over with. At the very least, Jisung knows Minho would be kind enough to turn him down gently. 

And then Minho’s face drops a lot closer and Jisung suddenly has a flashback to his dream last night. Jisung’s breath catches in his throat, but it’s just Minho crouching into a squat. The sunlight is back in Jisung’s eyes and he shuts them closed, tightly, and silently hopes Minho didn’t see the flash of surprise or panic or whatever appeared in his eyes. (Honestly, that was ridiculous, Jisung thinks.) He keeps his eyes firmly shut so he doesn’t have to see or think about Minho even more, instead listening to Changbin and Seungmin having a weird conversation about bugs and Hyunjin trying to get Jeongin to explain why he was awake late last night, and silently waits for Chan to finish networking with the deer. 

But escaping reality isn’t that easy, because there’s a poke to his side and Jisung’s eyes snap open involuntarily, only to see Minho still smiling insufferably down at him. “Rude,” Jisung says. 

“Aw, are you grumpy and tired?” Minho replies. Jisung narrows his eyes because Minho’s smile is starting to turn devious. 

“Not grumpy, but a little tired,” Jisung replies. “Mostly don’t want to be poked. I mean, do _you_ enjoy being poked?” Jisung asks, just to entertain Minho. 

“Can’t say I do,” Minho replies. “Now that I have your attention, how are you doing? Feels like I haven’t had a proper conversation with you in a while.” Minho picks up a twig and pokes the dirt instead. 

“I’m touched,” Jisung replies, deciding to go for the sarcastic tone to cover up the fact that he actually feels touched. Everyone has been really busy with planning, practicing their magic, and trying to help Jeongin and Hyunjin develop their powers, so there hasn’t been much chance for Jisung to really individually talk to anyone, even if Jisung and Minho do share the same match class. “But you had the pleasure of seeing my face in math just yesterday.” 

“Ah,” Minho nods knowingly. “Then I guess you can’t blame me if I wanted to see it more.” 

Jisung knows it’s meant to be a joking thing, but Minho throws the words out so easily, and it doesn’t sound like he’s mocking him. So just kidding, Jisung cannot do this. Whatever _this_ is. 

But before Jisung can attempt to delve into actual conversation, Minho straightens himself up and offers a hand. Jisung accepts it, feeling Minho’s warm and firm grip for no longer than a few seconds, and then he too is standing and Minho drops his hand. Chan’s finally finished his conversations with the deer, and he waits expectantly for the rest of the group to head out together.

The air is filled with their casual chattering, subjects ranging from school to music and dance and anything else that’s actually mundane. It’s nice—Jisung feels less like a random chosen one for an unexpected task and more like a normal high-schooler. 

“I can’t believe it’s only noon,” Changbin says as they file into the music store after Chan has unlocked it for them. 

“I know,” Jisung agrees. “This is what happens when you wake up too early.”

“Anyone staying here besides me and Jeongin?” Chan asks. Jeongin’s working shift, but Changbin raises a lazy hand too, since after Chan he’s the one who uses the shop the most. Jisung’s tempted to stay, but even though he’s not that tired he could use a short nap—normally at this time on a Saturday he would have only been awake for one or two hours, not five. Plus, the healing at the end did make him significantly more drained, so he figures he might as well recharge a bit.

“Okay, Changbin, Jeongin—I’m going to grab some lunch for us and then open up shop. Everyone else, get home safe, and please don’t destroy anything while I’m gone,” Chan says, disappearing out the door. 

“Excellent,” Minho says. “I’m looking for things to destroy, now.” He makes a show of picking up a guitar, placing his fingers on random frets and playing a chord that sounds absolutely horrendous.

“Oh, geez,” Seungmin rolls his eyes. Hyunjin lets out a giggle but ends up following Seungmin out the door. There’s a _ding_ and then they’re gone. 

“See you next week!” Minho calls out after them, though they obviously can’t hear him anymore. Jisung watches with amusement as Minho plays a few more sad chords, but at least they sound just the slightest better this time. 

“Wow, you could totally be a guitarist,” Jisung says with faux approval. “Anyway, I’m gonna head home and take a nap, you coming?” He holds the door open and Minho puts the guitar down. 

“Bye, guys!” Jisung hollers back into the shop as they leave. In a way, he supposes that them walking home together has now become a thing. Minho says it’s convenient because he only lives a block further, and Jisung appreciates the company anyway (most of the time). 

“So, have you been sleeping well recently? Still having weird dreams and nightmares?” Minho asks. 

_Of course_ he had to ask that. Minho is probably just trying to make small talk since he’s heard Jisung complaining about having nightmares before, but it feels like the universe just doesn’t want Jisung to forget last night. 

_Don’t think about it,_ Jisung tells himself. He still thinks about it. “No more nightmares, for the most part,” Jisung replies, because even if he can’t control his wandering thoughts he can at least still control his mouth. “What about you?”

“Didn’t have many to begin with,” Minho chuckles. “And nothing weird about the forest either, like… you even had a dream about Soonie, which is kind of funny to me,” he laughs. “Cats do have a way of worming themselves into people’s hearts.”

“Hey, at least she was okay!” Jisung says. “I was genuinely worried. Oh yeah, how’s Doongie?” 

Minho rambles on about his cat while Jisung listens contentedly, and before he realizes it they’ve arrived at his house. _Darn,_ Jisung thinks. He feels like the walk home always seems faster when it’s with Minho, and maybe it’s because Jisung could enjoy listening to him talking about anything.

“See you Monday?” Jisung asks, standing on the doorstep and rummaging his pockets for the house key. 

“Sure,” Minho replies, the ends of his mouth curling up, and Jisung does a double take at this because how has he never noticed that, like this, Minho could totally pass as a cat?

And with that, Jisung forgets what he’s doing. He has the key in his hand, but why isn’t he turning around to unlock the door? Why is Jisung's back to the house and why is Minho lingering, still there?

It must be because Jisung’s just a little too spent from funneling so much magic through his hands. It must be because of this that—for once—Jisung doesn’t stop himself from staring at Minho’s face too long. At the scattered strands of hair, rebellious from all the running around in the forest, at his catlike grin and the even prettier smile in his eyes. Oh, and his long, furling eyelashes—Jisung couldn’t discount those. And it must be because Minho’s a little tired too that he unabashedly stares back. 

But—oh—Minho’s eyes aren’t smiling anymore. Jisung feels any remaining semblance of sanity losing itself in those eyes as they grow wider, their dark depths swirling with a question. 

Minho puts a tentative foot forward and Jisung stays rooted to the step above. They still haven’t broken eye contact, though Jisung’s tempted to say _hah, you blinked first!_ at Minho. Heck, even his blinking resembles the actions of a cat. But to jokingly break the moment—Jisung isn’t _that_ stupid, even if he is a bit of a coward, waiting on the doorstep with a sprouting seed of desire that Minho will be the bold one and stop staring back and come even closer.

Minho does. 

It must be because Minho can read Jisung’s eyes, just as much as Jisung is reading Minho’s. Now that Jisung thinks back, he can maybe discern what Minho was trying to find when he had stared at Jisung so intently after their waterfall excursion. This time, Jisung knows what Minho hopes to see, and he thinks it’s something along the lines of hope itself, and beyond that, possibly a reciprocated longing and understanding, (rather than Jisung’s confused curiosity before). Jisung isn’t great at the whole expressing his emotions thing, especially when it comes to feelings he has so little experience with, but he guesses that this time Minho sees what he’s searching for in Jisung’s eyes. Or maybe he can hear Jisung’s heart beating louder than any drum, racing as fast as his thoughts. (No, it only sounds that loud because it’s his own heart, Jisung reminds himself.) But maybe if Minho actually had the hearing of a cat he’d be able to pick up on the way Jisung’s heart is thudding painfully; then again, if it were vice-versa, maybe Jisung would be able to hear the way Minho’s heart is doing the same.

Or maybe if he weren’t so entranced by Minho’s eyes he’d hear the gulp Minho takes before he places a hand on Jisungs shoulder and tiptoes to level himself with the extra height Jisung has thanks to the doorstep—okay, so their faces are really close now, and Jisung stops thinking about that because the pretty eyes that he’s still staring at are gently falling shut. So Jisung’s gaze darts down instead and those are some nice lips but no time to think about that either since Minho leans the last bit forward. Jisung finally stops drinking in Minho’s face and closes his own eyes too on instinct. He feels a pressure on his mouth and then... they’re kissing. 

It’s magical.

After Minho closes the gap between them, Jisung ceases to think, but he can say with absolute certainty that this _feels_ magical.

Call it cliché, but In the past months, Jisung has learned what magic is, what it means to harbour magic. He has felt it coursing through his body like part of his blood; if not for a fact that his magic is really the forest’s magic, Jisung might be tempted to say that the magic is almost a part of him, now. But there is something that is, without a doubt, a part of him: the memories he’s built lately, from stumbling across a stranger helping deer in the forest to the stranger revealing secrets and Jisung learning that there’s more to the stranger than meets the eye. To becoming friends that teased each other about leaves in their hair, to assuaging each others’ fears and insecurities, with Minho helping keep Jisung company because Jisung hated the thought of going into the forest alone, and with Jisung finding solace in the thought that Minho is also scared of heights but if he can climb a dangerous rock pile then Jisung can too. To private smiles that nobody else sees, and now to this. 

Okay, so maybe Jisung hasn’t stopped thinking. Maybe his thoughts are still running ever-so-fast, but have been quenched, in a way. Because Jisung also just _feels_ the thoughts and remembers the time they spent together in the past as their mouths settle on each other and Minho’s smiles against him. The thoughts aren’t loudly racing through the forefront of his brain, but rather setting the backdrop for this. 

And this is the real magic, just the beauty of him and Minho. Lips on lips; a shared breath and shared memories. Like the beautiful soul connections Jisung had experienced at the forest heart, Jisung and Minho’s souls feel like one in the moment, a rainbow of feelings manifested and magic merged together.

Maybe it lasts only for a couple seconds, and Minho pulls away. Jisung almost chases the feeling because Minho’s lips are incredibly soft, soft as his smile.

But the warm hand on his shoulder is still there, and Minho looks at him expectantly. Another blink passes before Jisung realizes that he should say something. 

“You reminded me of a cat,” Jisung blurts, because somehow that’s the first coherent thought to enter his head even though it’s only half an attempt to explain any of his actions in the past two minutes, and a confusing one at that. _And_ to top it off his voice cracks on the last syllable. “Wait, give me a moment?” Jisung quickly continues.

Minho laughs loudly, bracing a hand against the wall. “So is that why you were staring at my face for so long?” he asks. 

Common sense is starting to return to Jisung, and he is most definitely blushing now. “Your mouth…” Jisung gets distracted again, this time because he’s associating Minho’s mouth less with cats and more with the kiss they just shared. He scrambles back to reality. “You stared back!” he says. “But… that was… nice?” 

Smooth. Jisung can only say that when he occasionally writes lyrics at the music shop finding the proper words seems a lot easier. 

Minho’s smile gets breathtakingly wider, pink lips stretching up his cheeks. They’re so enticing, and Jisung wants nothing more than to dive back in. “Was it or wasn’t it?”

“It was!” Jisung quickly rushes to confirm. “I liked it,” he adds, and it comes out a bit shyer than he had intended. “So, uh—” What is he supposed to do now? _Can we kiss again?_ Is what his mouth wants to say. Or maybe something along the lines of _If you couldn’t tell yet, I really like you,_ but it seems like both in his dreams and in real life he can never quite finish things off. 

The door to Jisung’s house swings open. “I thought I heard voices outside,” Jisung’s mother says. 

Both Jisung and Minho panic at that, rushing to compose themselves. Minho beats him to it, and before Jisung can address his mother, Minho is shooting him a quick “See you soon!” and skirting down the sidewalk. 

“What did you hear?” Jisung asks, holding his breath and hoping the conversation doesn’t take an awkward turn for the worse.

“Laughing?” His mother looks at him funnily and Jisung inwardly sags with relief. “So who was that? And how was it at the music shop today?”

Hah. Music shop. She doesn’t know that he and Minho are fighting dark magic in the forest. She doesn’t know that he and Minho just kissed. 

He and Minho just kissed. 

Jisung can still feel the echo of Minho’s lips imprinted onto his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter became way longer than I expected and Jisung’s rambling narrative kinda got away from me at the end, but nonetheless I think I'm satisfied with how this turned out. I’d love to hear what you thought—comments are much appreciated!
> 
> As usual, have a great day/night wherever you are!


	11. Chapter 11

Jisung does _not_ take a nap after that. His brain is stuck in a loop, thinking about Minho’s fond laughter and soft lips and nothing else. Jisung’s mouth is stuck too, since the only thing it seems capable of doing right now is smiling. 

But also Jisung wishes he didn’t get interrupted right as he was going to… confess? Jisung likes to think he would’ve mustered up the courage to do it, since they had just kissed. There’s no way Minho could interpret it in another way, but Jisung still thinks a formal confession is due. The question now is… how to do that. Jisung thinks the prospect of Minho’s sweet lips on his again fuels his courage as he pulls out his phone.

**Jisung**

heyyyyyyyy<

bad timing earlier?<

Can we meet sometime soon to… finish that conversation?<

Jisung can’t help the stab of embarrassment he feels at those words, but he’s already sent the messages. Minho replies almost immediately.

**Minho**

>Heh you sound quite eager

>But I’ll admit I am too

>Maybe tomorrow 

>Also weren’t you going to take a nap? 

**Jisung**

well yes, but…<

anyway! where do you want to meet?<

**Minho**

>I guess I’ll be nice and leave your sentence hanging

>How about the forest edge? 

>We can go to another secret spot I’ve found

>Definitely won’t be anymore interruptions ;))

Jisung may sometimes have a brain slow as a sloth, but he can tell that Minho is quite blatantly flirting with him. And let it be known that Jisung cannot flirt—does not know how to flirt—and is lucky that there are two phone screens separating Minho from Jisung’s rapidly coloring face.

**Jisung**

haha! cool, cool... **<**

looking forward to it<

Oh, no. Jisung cringes at himself. But by some miracle Minho seems to not mind his continuous awkwardness, and they decide to meet the next day after lunch. And by another miracle, even if Jisung is definitely too awake right now to be napping anytime soon, he still ends up falling asleep fairly quickly that night. 

\---

The next day Jisung’s heart is pounding in anticipation as he heads out. He tries to appear as inconspicuous as possible when he passes the music shop because the last thing he needs is Chan or Changbin noticing him walking past and asking what he’s doing. Luckily, Jisung subtly peers inside the shop as he passes and notes that neither of them are even in the front of the shop. 

As he gets near the end of the street where the sidewalk merges with the grass, Jisung sees Minho already waiting for him, leaning against a pine tree and with his hands shoved in his pockets. Minho visibly brightens when he sees Jisung and Jisung’s heart skips a beat. He throws up a hand to wave and can’t help but smile back when Minho grins at him. 

“Hi,” Jisung says. 

“Hi,” Minho replies. When Jisung comes to a stop in front of Minho and just stands there, Minho muffles a laugh behind the sleeve of his hoodie and his eyes form pretty crescent moons. Jisung stares and doesn’t stop even when he feels his cheeks heating up because he already stared so long yesterday, anyway. 

Minho’s grin gets impossibly bigger. “Cute,” he says, and Jisung finally ducks down because he thinks he might combust. Not necessarily because of shyness or embarrassment but maybe because his chest just feels so fuzzy and warm and he’s pretty sure Minho has never outright called him _cute_ before. 

Jisung looks back up when a warm hand grabs his own. “But while I certainly don’t mind the staring, we do have someplace to go.” He intertwines their fingers and starts walking off into the forest, pulling Jisung along with him. 

“Okay,” Jisung breathes. “Where are we going today?” _Wait, does this count as a date?_ Jisung suddenly realizes. _Maybe this time it does?_

“Hmm,” Minho muses. “While I’m going to admit that the waterfall was pretty romantic last time, I think I know another spot that you’ll also like.” How Minho can throw words like that out so casually, Jisung will never know. 

Minho peers up at the sky through the trees. The weather is mild—with springtime around the corner—and today the sky is blue, not a cloud in sight. “And the sun is out too,” he continues. “That’ll be perfect.”

“Romantic,” Jisung repeats to himself. “Is this going to be a surprise like last time, then?” 

Minho nods, shooting him a satisfied grin. Of course it would be. Typical Minho, to not tell him where they’re going. Now that Jisung thinks about it, the first time Minho took him back into the forest, he wouldn’t tell Jisung where they were going either. 

“Wow, so mysterious,” Jisung remarks. 

Minho turns on him. “I’ll show you _mysterious,_ ” he says, eyes darkening and his hair falling across his forehead. His gaze darts down to Jisung’s lips before he pulls back and snickers at the surprised look on Jisung’s face. “Just kidding, let’s save that for later.”

“Later…” Jisung echoes, clutching his free hand to his heart. Minho is going to be the death of him, he thinks. And maybe literally, because Jisung almost trips over his feet when Minho tugs him along and starts walking again. 

They end up coming to a stop in a section of the woods Jisung hasn’t been to before, but the area they’re in doesn’t really look different than any other section of the woods Jisung has been to. Minho insists that there’s a surprise beyond the next patch of trees, though. Then he gets a mischievous look on his face and tells Jisung to close his eyes. 

“You better not try any funny business,” Jisung warns him. 

“Don’t worry, I would never,” Minho replies, smiling sweetly in a way that doesn’t feel reassuring at all, but somehow Jisung still has a sense that he means it. “Okay, I’ll be back. And close your eyes,” Minho tells him again, before he runs off ahead of him. 

Jisung glares at Minho’s back and closes his eyes, hearing Minho’s footsteps fade into the distance. At this point he should be more scared of being in any given area of the forest alone, but he just… isn’t. Besides, he’s comforted by the thought that Minho is… somewhere closeby, anyway. 

In a minute Jisung hears the footsteps returning. “I’m back,” Minho announces, as if Jisung couldn’t tell. “Keep your eyes closed,” he tells Jisung. Jisung feels Minho taking his hand again and is pulled forward, more gently this time. 

“We’re standing in front of the secret place now,” Minho tells him after they’ve walked forward a short distance. 

“Can I finally open my eyes?” Jisung asks. Even though his eyes are closed, he can feel the sunlight hitting his eyelids now, and guesses that they must be in an open area. And no waterfall this time, since he can’t hear the sound of running water anywhere. 

“Okay, yes,” Minho finally says, and Jisung blinks his eyes open. He has to adjust to the sudden influx of light though, and _wow_ there is a lot of sun. They’ve stepped into the outskirts of a clearing. But unlike most of the clearings Jisung has seen in this forest, this place is more like a meadow. It’s really pretty—grass dancing in the gentle breeze and blooming flowers dotting the landscape. Trees surround the area, but the majority of the meadow is openly cast in the warm sunlight. 

“Surprise!” Minho says, jumping in front of him. Suddenly Jisung has a small bouquet of flowers—reds, yellows, oranges, purples—bundled by tall grass thrust into his face. By the looks of it, he ran off just to pick them from the meadow. 

“Aww, thanks,” Jisung says. “But you just killed the flowers.”

Minho’s smile drops into a frown at that, and Jisung cackles. “It’s okay, there are a _lot_ of flowers here.” There really are. “Thank you, though,” he says, not deadpan this time. 

Something across the meadow catches his eye. “Hey, someone’s been here before!” In the distance, part of the trunk of a fallen tree is lying horizontally on the edge of the clearing. But the trunk has been carved out a bit to look like a bench.

“Oh yeah!” Minho’s eyes light up. “Probably before all the rumors about the forest started. But who needs a bench anyway when you can do this.” 

Minho runs to the center of the meadow, spreading his arms out against the blue sky, and Jisung can’t help but notice the way Minho looks _alive,_ like he belongs here with the sun shining brightly on his face and the wind blowing against his hair. Jisung smiles to himself, following Minho with the flowers in his hand. 

Minho bends down, a hand disappearing under the grass to test whether or not the soil is still wet. Under the bright sun today, Jisung would be surprised if it was, and he’s right when Minho’s fingers come up dry. Minho takes this as a sign that he’s free to sit in the grass, leaning back against his hands and looking up through his lashes at Jisung. The image is so ethereal, and Jisung snaps a mental shot of it, tucking it away in his memory.

Minho continues to smile and look up at him, and Jisung absolutely crumbles—the dam inside of him bursting as words spill out of his mouth. 

“I—I like you so much,” Jisung breathes. He feels like he’s so far gone for the boy in front of him, and by the looks of it, Minho knows all this already—he’s absolutely beaming now. 

Jisung’s heart swells and he squats down in front of Minho, taking a buttercup out of Minho’s handcrafted bouquet and tucking it behind Minho’s ear, brushing some wind-tousled strands of hair out of Minho’s face in the process. “Pretty,” Jisung murmurs to himself, inspecting his work with wide eyes and smugly noting that Minho has finally started to look a bit flustered, letting out a quiet laugh as the tips of his ears turn red. 

“You’re really pretty,” Jisung says again, louder this time, and doesn’t stop there. Besides, he already ran off script when he started the confession. “I think… you’re the prettiest flower in this meadow,” Jisung says. “And your smile is brighter than the sun, and your laughter is the sweetest, and your eyes—your eyes are so, so beautiful.” Especially now, when Jisung can see Minho’s irises reflecting some of the golden rays of sun. “And even when you don’t seem like it you’re impossibly caring and kind and I’m so glad I ran into you that day. Guess I can’t be annoyed at Soonie for taking my keys after all,” Jisung grins. 

Minho throws his head back and his laughter reverberates through the air. Jisung could listen to it forever.

“Alright. My turn,” Minho says. “C’mon, sit down.” 

So Jisung plops down across from Minho, sitting cross-legged between Minho’s legs. “Where should I start?” Minho wonders. “And first—” he too takes a flower, a pinkish-orange and white daffodil, from the bouquet, and proceeds to deftly weave it behind Jisung’s ear just as Jisung had done to him.

“Definitely prettier,” Minho hums, self-satisfied. Jisung blushes and his cheeks only get warmer when Minho takes the bouquet out of Jisung’s hands, putting it to the side, and pulls both of Jisung’s hands into his own instead, rubbing circles over Jisung’s fingers with his thumbs. “Han Jisung,” Minho declares. “You don’t get to talk about my smile if I can’t talk about yours, because have you seen yourself? Every time your eyes and mouth crinkle up it’s simultaneously adorable and beautiful and it lights up the room. And you’re also selfless and you have the biggest, warmest, heart of anyone I know, so I couldn’t think of anyone else to be a better healer than you.”

“That’s so cheesy,” Jisung says, but his cheeks betray him because they’re definitely even redder now.

“And what you said wasn’t?” Minho prods him. “No way.”

“Fine, I’ll admit that I’m pretty sure I’ve never said anything so blatantly… eugh… sappy,” Jisung gestures, making a disgusted face. “Can we end the cheesy stuff now before my heart explodes though?”

“Wait, not yet,” Minho says. “I still need to let you know that I also really _really_ like you,” he says, throwing Jisung’s heart for yet another loop. Then: “Okay. We can stop now.”

“Thanks,” Jisung says. 

Minho raises one of their pairs of interlocked hands. “Wait. Just one more thing, I promise,” he says, a sly look on his face. 

Jisung regards Minho suspiciously. “What?”

“I also think you have really nice lips,” Minho says. “Can I get a kiss?”

“Oh,” Jisung lets out a breath, his lips unconsciously parting. “Okay. Yes—I would like that too,” he says, stumbling over his words.

“Fantastic.” And just like that, Jisung’s being pulled into Minho’s lap. Minho wastes no time in gently slotting his lips over Jisung’s. 

The kiss is warm and sweet, and has Jisung already mentioned that Minho’s lips are really soft? At first, it’s just light presses, their mouths moving carefully, tenderly, against each other. Jisung feels warm and content, the sun shining on his back and everything is perfect. Minho brings a hand around to Jisung’s back, pulling him closer even as they part for air. Jisung wraps his own arms around Minho’s neck, grinning down at him. The grass is tickling his ankles where his pant legs have ridden up a bit but Jisung finds that he doesn’t really mind. 

“Jisung… are you wearing lip balm today?” Minho giggles and _shoot_ Jisung’s been caught.

“I mean- I just thought- your texts- we might… kiss more- so I thought…” Jisung flounders. Their first kiss had been nice and chaste and still amazing but Jisung knows his lips are normally dry and chapped so he’d been prepared this time.

“Hey, you don’t have to be embarrassed about it. It makes things feel better anyway,” Minho says. “And I like keeping my lips moisturized too.” Of course, that’s why Minho’s own lips are so soft all the damn time. 

“Shut up,” Jisung says, and dives back in to kiss Minho again. 

Their kiss has Jisung’s head reeling a little this time, as Minho drags his lips over Jisung’s, one hand bunching up the jacket Jisung’s wearing against his back and the other hand coming up to grip Jisung’s nape, guiding Jisung to Minho’s movements. Jisung can’t help it as his tongue slips into Minho’s mouth, exploring even though he’s admittedly a little shy. Jisung hears Minho’s breath catch in his throat and grins against Minho’s mouth, feeling blissful and satisfied. All Jisung can think about is how Minho is everywhere and how close they are, and how Minho gasps a little as Jisung’s teeth catch on his lips. Jisung is intoxicated, lost but grounded by Minho’s mouth and Minho’s hands and Minho’s lap and Minho’s everything. 

Minho finally pulls back, eyes dancing with amusement as Jisung whines and tries to follow his lips for more. 

“Maybe that’s enough for now,” Minho gives him a pointed look. Before Jisung can even get a warning, though, Minho falls backwards into the meadow, bringing Jisung with him. Jisung rolls off a little so that he’s half lying against Minho and half lying against the grass. His head is on top of Minho’s chest and he can hear it pounding loudly, just like his own. 

Minho moves a hand up to card his fingers through Jisung’s hair in lazy, rhythmic motions, and Jisung’s eyes inadvertently flutter shut. For a while they stay like that—Jisung listening to the breeze ruffling the grass and Minho’s gradually calming heartbeat, and Minho smiling and staring up at the blue sky. Some of the grass is taller and it rises over their lying forms, creating a sort of wall that makes Jisung feel like they’re cut off from the rest of the world, idyllic and undisturbed. 

“Thanks for bringing me here,” Jisung says. “Really. This is amazing.”

“Wouldn’t have wanted to do it with anyone else,” Minho says. He picks up the bouquet laying on the ground and separates the bundle of flowers, holding the flowers above their heads and begins weaving the stems together against the endless blue expanse of sky. Soon enough he’s created a messy flower crown, ends sticking out in various places but it looks pretty enough. Minho places it on Jisung’s head. 

Jisung doesn’t react, because somehow he’s fallen asleep against Minho’s chest. So Minho just smiles at the sight, at Jisung’s peacefully closed eyes and the soft, steady exhales into Minho’s jacket. The colorful crown of flowers rests atop his head, petals fluttering with each breath, completing the beautiful picture. 

\---

“Okay, so don’t kill me,” Felix says, dropping his lunch tray onto the table as he slides into the seat across Jisung. 

Jisung feels a sense of foreboding. Given Felix’s conversation opener, Jisung is about to hear something bad. Probably.

“What is it?” Jisung asks with a bated breath. 

“I may have heard some things I probably wasn’t supposed to hear,” Felix says. 

Oh _fun._ Jisung can already hazard a few guesses as to what Felix might be talking about. “And what would that be?” Jisung asks. 

“So… you were there when I went to return something to Chan yesterday at the music shop. I accidentally eavesdropped on a conversation that you guys and some others were having about the forest? And some… dark magic? And deer?” Felix says.

“So that’s why you looked so weird when you were giving him back his USB stick,” Jisung can’t help but laugh at that. Felix had acted oddly shy, and he had refused to make eye contact with anyone while he was interrupting their meeting. 

“And… actually… okay _please_ don’t kill me,” Felix says again. “But a while back I heard you talking to someone in the library about something like that, too. Didn’t recognize the other voice at the time, but now I think it’s… who’s that math guy… Minho?” 

“Oh, so there _was_ someone on the other side of the door that time!” Jisung says.

“I swear I didn’t mean to! I was trying to find a book for a research project and I kinda just caught a few words here and there.”

“We did think the rooms were soundproof, though…” Jisung laughs again, because he’s not really mad at Felix, anyway. But he does make a mental note that the study rooms aren’t as private as he had thought. “Though Minho did think someone was listening that day, he was so paranoid.”

“Yeah, oops?” Felix says, shrugging sheepishly. “I didn’t want to bring it up because you said you were just working on a project together. But then I heard all of you talking about weird stuff again yesterday, and there were way more people involved. So I have to ask: are you _really_ doing a math project together?”

“No…” Jisung trails off, unable to meet Felix’s eyes. “Sorry I lied about that, but this isn’t something we’re really supposed to talk about.”

“Alright,” Felix says through bites of his lunch. Then there’s an aggressive stab to the peas with his spork. “Then can I please know what the hell is going on? So far I know you and this Minho guy and also Chan and even Changbin and all of you music store people are in on it. _And_ there were three other faces in that room….say, isn’t one of them in our year for the student council?” Felix rambles. “Anyway, spill.”

“Uh,” Jisung says, rather nervously. 

“Jisung… I’ve known you for how long? I wouldn’t say a word to others about this, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Felix pushes on. “Besides, I’ve already heard enough to put together the fact that there’s some strange stuff going on in the forest. And I want to help,” Felix says. 

“Okay,” Jisung affirms. And maybe he feels a little excited at the thought of his best friend possibly joining their team. He knows Chan and Felix are pretty close, too, so he thinks Chan _should_ be okay with it. “I’m technically sworn to secrecy about the very first event that got me involved, but I can explain the rest. Pretty much…”

\---

“Jisung…”

“I know, Chan, I know. I think you should just let him, though,” Jisung says. “You and I both know Felix is a great person, and he really won’t shut up about wanting to help, so… what does the forest have to say about it?” 

Truthfully, Jisung knows it’s dangerous for anyone to join the group. But they’ve all risked their lives multiple times now, and so far none of them have gotten hurt. Jisung would hate to see his best friend getting hurt, too, but he also can’t pass up the opportunity to work alongside him.

“The forest—the forest likes the idea,” Chan says, rather reluctantly. He sighs. “Fine. Can you take him to the heart tomorrow? Then I guess he can join us on the third mission.”

“Yes!” Jisung pumps a fist. 

“And stop playing footsie with Minho under the table during our meetings. You two aren’t subtle at all,” Chan shoots, because he won’t let Jisung have all the satisfaction.

Jisung’s face colors since he doesn’t have a comeback for that.

And, well, Felix’s palpable excitement at seeing the magical, alive, forest heart makes it especially worthwhile. Just being able to witness the way Felix’s eyes simultaneously light up and melt at the sight of the old oak tree and its expansive canopy, the thrumming heart, the glowing flowers, and the area chittering with life makes Jisung feel happy inside. When they come across Soonie, even the cat seems to develop a soft spot for Felix, curling against his legs as Felix’s laughter tinkles across the clearing. 

Jisung thinks he’ll be the perfect piece of the puzzle to complete their entourage of forest-savers. 

\---

Felix meets the others.

There’s a myriad of reactions: Chan patting Felix on the back as he introduces him to the rest, Changbin and Seungmin offering friendly greetings, Hyunjin mentioning that, hey, Felix is the USB guy from the other day (getting a sheepish smile from Felix in response), Minho giving Felix a cheeky grin once he realizes who Felix is (and after Jisung had mentioned the library incident to Minho), and Jeongin _flinching_ (just the slightest moment, barely noticeable) when Felix comes into view but then quickly smiling back, introducing himself. 

Jisung continues watching Jeongin, because, yeah… what’s up with that? Maybe Jisung’s just paranoid, but he is a bit worried now, because it’s been a few weeks and Jeongin still doesn’t seem to have discovered his other power yet. Hyunjin found his last week in the forest, and Felix doesn’t have his either, but that’s because Jisung took Felix to the heart only the other day. Jeongin just seems to be acting a bit odd, and Jisung still remembers Soonie’s offhand comment about his strange aura. 

If there’s good news, though, it’s that the forest seems to be slowly healing itself. After helping those two large herds of deer, those patches of forest where the dark magic had seeped into are shrinking. With no infested deer to feed on the infested grass, it’s dying out, and new grass has started to spring up in its place. Some of the trees still look quite dead, but Jisung thinks it’s a big improvement. Though there’s still many infested animals roaming the forest, it seems like their help has given nature the push it needed to finally fight back.

Anyway, when they delve into the depths of the forest for their third mission, Jisung knows that maybe it’s not something he should be doing, but…

(“Okay, we’ll split into three groups this time. I’ll go with Felix since he’s the newest, and then we can have it be Changbin, Jisung, and Hyunjin for the second group and Minho, Jeongin, and Seungmin for the third,” Chan says.

“I think that maybe you should switch Jeongin and Changbin,” Jisung says. “Our group would be a bit overpowered then, don’t you think? And Changbin’s generally stronger so it’ll help balance out the groups, especially Seungmin will mostly be separate from his group casting illusions.”

All attention moves to Jisung. Maybe because Jisung has been mostly silent for the duration of the meeting—until now. Jisung shrugs as if to say, _So? Those are just my thoughts?_

“Alright,” Chan agrees. Jisung knew he would, anyway, because Jisung’s logic is sound. _Good,_ Jisung thinks to himself. Jeongin will be in his group now, and closer to him at all times.)

… Jisung wants to keep an eye on Jeongin during their third mission. He doesn’t even know what he should be looking for, but he wants to try and find _something._ Or maybe Jisung’s secretly hoping he won’t see anything, that all this is just a meaningless coincidence. 

And a couple noteworthy events _do_ occur during that third mission, but as for the one pertaining to Jeongin—Jisung can’t tell if it’s truly noteworthy or if he’s just reading into things too hard. 

So: Jeongin. Nothing particularly strange there, just Jisung subtly trying to watch Jeongin as he fights off his own deer. Multitasking is far harder than it sounds, but somehow Jisung pulls it off, and without stumbling on another rock. 

Jisung notices that Jeongin seems to be able to sense some of the deer coming a bit sooner than the others might. It’s like Jeongin knows a certain deer is going to come for him or spew out dark magic before the deer actually does. Jisung wonders if maybe that’s Jeongin’s power—and that because it hadn’t been one that completely obvious Jeongin just never seemed to notice it. However, this is already (effectively) the same power that Changbin has, so Jisung wonders if the forest would give two of them the same powers despite trying to make the rest all unique. If that’s the case, then there would be nothing for Jisung to really be worried about. But it still doesn’t explain Jeongin’s “aura” or his strange reaction to meeting Felix. Jisung’s brain hurts the harder he tries to think about it, but he can’t even think that hard about it because he’s also in the middle of a fight. 

But the most noteworthy event that day leaves them all disturbed. 

It goes like this: Jisung is trying to keep an eye on so many things at once, but out of the corner of his eye he sees a small cloud of dark magic heading right towards Felix’s unsuspecting form. Figures, because Felix is still relatively new to this and hasn’t quite gotten used to checking for danger on all sides. 

But the cloud is already right next to Felix when Jisung notices it. There’s no way he can reach it in time. Chan also seems to share this sentiment, as Jisung witnesses him glancing up to access the situation only to immediately don a terrified look on his face. Jisung quickly scans the area for Hyunjin—but Hyunjin hasn’t even noticed yet, and even at the speed he can run it wouldn’t be fast enough. 

So Jisung and Chan do the only thing they can think of at once: they shout at Felix. 

It all happens like it’s in slow motion: Felix whirls around, an expression of surprise on his face. Open-mouthed, he makes a perfect victim for the dark magic. Then Jisung notes that Jeongin’s not next to him anymore and sees Jeongin sprinting across the clearing too. He doesn’t think Jeongin’s going to be fast enough, either, even though Jeongin had somehow picked up on it before any of them. 

The dark cloud surges straight into Felix’s gaping mouth. Jisung's heart jumps in his throat.

Two seconds later, the cloud shoots right back out, and dissolves into the open air. 

_What the fuck,_ Jisung thinks, feeling both incredibly thankful and incredibly stupified. Chan sags with relief, but is then immediately sprinting over to Felix’s side, alongside Jeongin. Felix has fallen to his knees, but otherwise? He seems perfectly fine. 

“Are you alright?” he hears Chan asking. Jisung wants to go see for himself too, but he has to deal with the deer that is currently storming him. He hears Felix cough twice, before Felix does indeed confirm that he’s okay. Shaken, but okay. 

Jisung and the others finish up with the mission before they’re all rushing over to Felix. Felix has stood back up by now, explaining that he had felt it enter his body before he could even do anything about it. Felix says that for a moment, he felt like the magic was trying to enter his brain, like someone had been poking at his head, but that in the next moment it had all stopped as the magic rushed back out of him. 

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Jisung says, hugging his friend. “I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if the dark magic hadn’t changed its course.”

But as they head back that evening, Jisung’s pretty sure the same question lies on all of their minds: Why didn’t the dark magic take the opportunity to invade Felix’s body? What it just did goes against everything they’ve learned about its behaviors so far. 

Jisung doesn’t have an answer to the question.

  
  



	12. Chapter 12

“Jisung! Jisung!” Felix comes running into the music shop, an excited look on his face. 

“Jisung! I figured it out!” Felix continues, bolting up to the counter and grinning brilliantly. 

“What is it?” Jisung asks, glad for a distraction from his chemistry homework. 

“I figured out my power,” Felix says, calming down. “I was just at the animal shelter—”   


“Hey, aren’t you  _ still  _ supposed to be on shift at the shelter?” Jisung cuts in. “You could’ve just texted.”

“It’s okay,” Felix dismisses him. “Talking in person is easier. Plus, I’m covered. And it’s only a five minute walk back. Three minutes if I run,” he muses. 

“Okay, then do tell,” Jisung replies, eagerly propping up arms on his elbows and resting his chin in his hand. 

“So I was working at the animal shelter when—all of a sudden—my vision blanked,” Felix says.

“Isn’t that a bad thing?” Jisung asks. 

“Just wait,” Felix shushes him. “My vision came back right away, but it wasn’t  _ my  _ vision. I was so confused for a moment, because it felt like an out-of-body experience. That’s when I realized it  _ was  _ an out-of-body experience, and that I was seeing things through the eyes of one of the dogs that had been taken outside to play.”

“So… you can see through the eyes of others?” Jisung asks, curious. That’s certainly interesting.

“I think so,” Felix affirms. “When I blinked my vision had returned back to normal. And then I thought about it real hard and I was able to put myself back in the dog’s eyes. So with practice I think that I’d been able to see through most animals’ eyes if I tried hard enough.”

“Wow,” Jisung breathes. “What about people? Do you think you’d be able to see through mine? Also isn’t that a bit invasive…”

“Nope,” Felix says. “Don’t tell anyone, but I tried as I was running here. Tried doing it on a passerby, but it didn’t work,” he says, sounding relieved. “Just animals, I think. And I would only want to do it for important things,” he adds. “Because it  _ is  _ sort of invasive.”

“What about… infested animals?” The cogs in Jisung’s brain are turning. “Like, that way we’d be able to see things from their viewpoint, or see how the dark magic might see the world.”

“You could be onto something,” Felix says, eyes alight again. “It might be dangerous though, so when I try could you come with me?” he asks. 

“Definitely dangerous,” Jisung agrees, remembering the way the magic had literally entered Felix’s body only days ago. “But also because it seems like you can’t see normally if you try to channel your power, right? You wouldn’t be able to see what  _ you’re  _ doing, only what the animal is doing.”

“Right,” Felix says. “I dunno, maybe I could try seeing through both at once? At least I’ll be able to practice a lot at the animal shelter.”

“Okay,” Jisung says. “If you want to try it with an infested deer, I’ll come with you. But ask Chan first, okay?” he points his thumb to the back rooms, where Chan’s probably working on music. 

“Oh yeah, Chan!” Felix says, but he looks conflicted. “I don’t want to keep anything from him, but can you ask him for me? I should probably be heading back to the animal shelter now.”

Jisung rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I’ll do it. Have fun!”

“Thanks,” Felix says, leaving with a spring in his step. 

_ That’s good, but also not good,  _ Jisung thinks. It’s good news that Felix has learned what unique power the forest granted him, but what about Jeongin? It’s been a couple weeks for him now, so surely he must have discovered something. 

_ Maybe I should confront Jeongin,  _ Jisung thinks. 

But first, he has to relay Felix’s information to Chan, who reluctantly agrees to let Felix experiment with his powers in the forest as long as Jisung or someone else accompanies him.

_ Maybe I should also ask Chan about Jeongin?  _ But Jisung doesn’t want to do that either, not when Chan has so much on his plate. 

So he’ll do it himself. 

\---

Okay, well, Jisung promised himself that he’d confront Jeongin, but he’s been procrastinating. He keeps telling himself that he has time before their final mission; also, he hasn’t conveniently crossed paths with the latter yet, and neither does Jisung particularly feel like seeking Jeongin out, especially when there’s a big math test coming up and Jisung feels incredibly screwed. He knows he’s not exactly dumb, but he’s just a bit behind on the material, and honestly, Jisung could care less about math. 

“Ughhhh.” Jisung groans into the silence, erasing all of his work for a problem because he ran into a dead end. He’s in one of the study rooms at the library after school, since he doesn’t have a shift today.

He’s really trying hard to understand the material, but it just isn’t working. Jisung is tempted to pack up and just head home when he hears a knock to the door of the study room.

That startles him—Jisung jumps up, knocking his knees underneath the table. When he looks back up at the door, he sees Minho’s face peering through the small slot of the window. 

Jisung glares at him. Minho smiles back. 

“Hi,” Minho says, opening the door and inviting himself inside. There’s definitely no way Jisung will be able to study now. 

“Ooh, math,” Minho says when he sees the textbook laid out on the table. 

“Yup,” Jisung grimaces. Then, because he feels like he needs to talk to someone about it: “Have you ever noticed anything strange with Jeongin?”

“Jeongin?” Minho settles down into the chair across from Jisung, looking surprised at the question. “I can’t say I have. Though it  _ is  _ a bit strange that Felix and Hyunjin have already found their powers while he hasn’t.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Jisung says, throwing up his hands. “It just doesn’t make sense. Also…” he trails off, unsure of whether or not he should really be delving into all of this. 

Though… Minho is one of the people he trusts most now. Maybe not at the start, during their very first encounter, when Minho was keeping secrets, but now Jisung knows that he’s a good person. He wouldn’t be conspiring against Jisung now, would he?

“Minho,” Jisung looks at the boy across from him very seriously. “You’re not keeping anything from me, are you? You really haven’t noticed anything with Jeongin?”

Minho looks taken aback by Jisung’s sudden change in tone, blinking rapidly as he pauses to collect his thoughts. “Jisung—” he says, looking Jisung in the eye. “I have nothing to hide from you, honestly.”

“Sorry, I just—”

“But you must have seriously noticed something off with Jeongin to be even asking this, so what happened?” Minho asks.

“I dunno, I’m overthinking things,” Jisung replies, sinking his face into the textbook.

A hand cups Jisung’s face, pushing it back up. “Don’t doubt yourself,” Minho says firmly, looking him in the eye.  _ That’s kinda hot,  _ Jisung thinks, leaning into Minho’s touch. 

Minho rubs circles into Jisung’s cheek with his thumb. “So what’s up?” he asks again, and Jisung spills everything. 

“When I first took Jeongin into the forest, we were checking on Soonie,” Jisung begins. “Obviously Soonie was okay, but she said something about Jeongin that struck me weirdly—she said he had a strange aura to him.”

“Huh,” Minho says, mystified. 

“That’s only the first thing, too,” Jisung says. “Maybe you didn’t notice, but  _ I  _ noticed that when Jeongin met Felix, he looked… startled? Frightened? I dunno, it was weird. And also when we were in the forest for the third mission Jeongin looked like he was able to move faster because he could sense things coming at him sooner, but that doesn’t make sense,” Jisung continues. “Because that’s already the power Changbin has, and even if Jeongin also has it, I find it hard to believe he hasn’t noticed it. So then he’d be lying to us. But why would he lie to us? I can’t find a way to connect it to his reaction to Felix, either,” Jisung complains. 

“It feels like I’m missing something important that links everything together and explains all of Jeongin’s behaviors and Soonie’s remarks,” Jisung finishes. “I just don’t know  _ what _ .”

“Reactions… sensing… strange aura,” Minho mutters to himself. “I’ll think about it later. And you didn’t want to ask Jeongin about it?” Minho prompts Jisung. 

“About that…” Jisung sighs. “I  _ was,  _ I really was! But I’ve kinda been pushing it away for studying and practicing right now.” He gestures to the math textbook. 

“I can help you prepare for the math test,” Minho offers. “And I think we should just ask Jeongin. If he’s understanding about it he should at least give us  _ something _ , right? And if there’s something truly weird going on then we’d know from the conversation, I guess.”

“It just feels like we’re prying?” Jisung says. “But yeah, I’ll ask him soon then. And you’d really help me study?” he asks Minho. 

“No, I hate you and I’d never do anything for you,” Minho deadpans, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, I think I’ve got this chapter down so I’d be able to help,” he says, already standing up and bringing his chair around the table to Jisung’s side to see the textbook. 

“Okay,” Jisung replies. “So about this problem…”

It turns out that Jisung gets in about half an hour of actual productive studying with Minho, before things start spiraling downhill. Not that Jisung hadn’t seen this coming, though—he’s surprised he even went half an hour before getting distracted and restless again. 

Minho is patiently explaining a problem to him and Jisung swears he was focusing on the explanation and the equations Minho is scribbling into the sheet in front of him. But somewhere along the way Jisung’s gaze ended up on Minho’s side profile, and he’s just been… staring. Just admiring the way Minho’s forehead slopes into his nose, and his long eyelashes and concentrated mouth up close. 

“Jisung….” Minho says, though he sounds less irritated and more amused. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Jisung quickly apologizes, shifting his focus back to the paper. The equations look too complicated, and how did Minho get from that step to the next, again? 

“Sorry, I can’t do this anymore,” Jisung says after another moment. “I think I’m done for the day, and my brain has reached its maximum capacity. Thanks for the effort, though.”

Minho’s eyes soften. “That’s okay. You still have some time before the test, anyway. And it’s not like this is easy.”

“Hmm, says the person who just breezed through half of it,” Jisung retorts, grinning

Minho pokes Jisung’s cheek. “Though I gotta say staring at me isn’t going to help,” he says cheekily. 

Jisung laughs nervously, even though he should already be past this stage. “My brain just really really doesn’t want to focus today.”

“Am I that distracting?”

“Yeah.” The truth slips out of Jisung’s mouth before he can stop it, and he can feel the blush rising to his face. Minho also looks the slightest bit caught off guard, maybe because he hadn’t expected Jisung to be so forward in his response.

“Now what am I supposed to do,” Minho complains, turning towards Jisung. Jisung opens his mouth to make a witty reply but can’t because Minho briefly presses his lips to Jisung’s own. 

“Guess I got distracted,” Minho throws out. Jisung laughs through his own flustered mess. 

“Okay, see—” Jisung throws up his hands. “It’s easy to get distracted.”

“Especially when your face makes the cutest expressions,” Minho teases him. He leans in to kiss Jisung again but they’re both smiling now so their lips just awkwardly bump against each other.

Jisung pulls away, still unable to stop smiling, but a bit scandalized— “Anyone could look through the door!” he says. “And thanks to Felix, we know the rooms aren’t very soundproof either.”

Minho laughs at him. “Not like we were being loud,” he points out. “But for privacy’s sake… and,” he checks his phone. “The library’s going to close soon anyway, so we should probably pack up.”

“Right,” Jisung says, though he’s honestly just thinking about Minho’s lips at this point. 

“Oh, and I almost forgot,” Minho suddenly says, interrupting Jisung who is eagerly putting away his math book. “Text Jeongin. Ask him to meet up with you.”

“Text him?” Jisung says. “But I’ve never texted him before…”

“Just do it,” Minho insists. “Set up a time, and then you won’t be able to push it back anymore. You did want answers, right?”

Jisung is unable to argue against that. “Fair point,” he says, and grudgingly brings up Jeongin’s contact in his phone. He only has the younger’s number because Chan insisted that everyone in the forest group all have each other’s numbers in the event of any emergencies. 

“Don’t pout,” Minho says. “Or I’ll be tempted to kiss it away again.” 

“Minho!” Jisung says, flushing scarlet. “Just let me text Jeongin in peace.”

“Sorry, couldn’t resist,” Minho apologizes, looking not the least bit sorry. At least by the time they’ve exited the study room Jisung’s managed to shoot a few messages to Jeongin and tame his flush down. 

But once they leave the library Minho is quick to pull Jisung behind the next school building and swoop in for another kiss. 

Jisung would be complaining, but there’s nobody around, and Minho lip’s are convincing, even without having spoken a word. 

“I hadn’t gotten my  _ real  _ kiss of the day yet,” Minho murmurs. Jisung thinks that’s awfully greasy, except he can’t help himself from responding just as eagerly, pushing against Minho’s lips with his own. At some point one of Minho’s hands comes to rest on his waist and Jisung involuntarily emits a small giggle because it tickles. Minho snorts—which should be unattractive but Jisung doesn’t mind. Regardless, Minho seems to take the hint, moving his hand to Jisung’s back instead and bringing up his other hand to cradle Jisung’s jaw, soft lips only pulling away briefly for air before they’re back and more demanding than before.

Jisung thinks that if eye contact with the scary deer was pulling his soul out in a bad way, then kissing Minho must be the opposite—Minho pulls and takes but gives back just as much, a balance in his movements. Jisung squints his eyes open for a moment, drinking in Minho’s beautiful face up close, and then lets them flutter shut again so he can just  _ feel,  _ because every time they kiss feels different.

Then Jisung’s phone dings loudly, causing him to flinch back. Minho just laughs. Jisung could never be annoyed at anyone but he wishes Jeongin didn’t have to respond to his texts right at this moment. The phone dings two more times before Jisung can unlock it. 

“You should probably reply while he’s online, and get this sorted out now,” Minho says, though the way he reaches up to tuck a strand of hair that had fallen aloof while they were kissing doesn’t help make Jisung’s mind much clearer. 

Very tempting to shut Minho up but Minho’s giving him that expectant look and Jisung knows he has responsibilities. So Jisung starts texting back as they begin walking back home. 

**Jeongin**

>I’m not exactly “free” tomorrow since I have a shift

>But, you know, the music shop is rarely busy so I’m basically free

>Why do you ask?

**Jisung**

uh, just wanted to talk to you about something<

probably won’t take too long, is that okay?<

**Jeongin**

>Sure, cya tomorrow then!

Jisung wonders if Jeongin would have agreed as easily if he told him what he wanted to talk about upfront. But Jeongin hadn’t asked either, so Jisung tells himself not to feel  _ too  _ guilty, pocketing his phone again and falling into small talk and banter with Minho as they head home. 

Minho also leaves him on the doorstep with a bright smile and one more kiss—short but reassuring, as if he knows that Jisung overthinks a lot—and Jisung’s still going to have to get used to having _ that  _ as a part of his life now.

\---

**basically a cat**

>So I was trying to sleep

>but then I thought of something

**basically a squirrel**

what?<

**basically a cat**

>Jisung why even are you still awake

>Anyway, you know how you were telling me earlier about Jeongin?

**basically a squirrel**

whoops<

but yeah, did you figure out something?<

**basically a cat**

>Maybe….

>Earlier you forgot to bring up Jeongin’s dreams

>And weren’t his weird dreams the entire reason he got involved

in this in the first place

**basically a squirrel**

wait you’re right<

but i kinda forgot about them since my dreams were a big meaningless flop<

**basically a cat**

>Okay, but what if *his* aren’t though

>But we still don’t know exactly what they mean, if anything

>I feel like they’re connected with the other things you told me somehow

>But still I can’t make the actual connection

>frustrating

>What would dreaming about the forest, reacting strangely to people you just met,

and being able to possible sense things sooner have in common

>oh and the whole strange aura business

**basically a squirrel**

i...<

strange aura always makes me think of dark magic<

but there’s no way someone like jeongin would be involved in that<

right?<

**basically a cat**

>I wouldn’t think so either, but…

>Guess you’ll find out tomorrow? Or at least you’ll find out something, hopefully

>Not like you can just outright ask someone if they’re doing shady stuff

**basically a squirrel**

i mean i just hope he isn’t cuz that’s scary...<

also what even is the truth anymore<

**basically a cat**

>Yeah...

**basically a squirrel**

um...goodnight then?<

**basically a cat**

>Yup, goodnight! 

>And make sure you sleep soon too, please!

**basically a squirrel**

okay, since you asked nicely<

also i’m getting tired anyway<

**basically a cat**

>sureee :3

\---

“Hi!” Jisung tries to put a smile on his face as he pushes open the door to the music shop after school. Minho had offered to accompany him but Jisung hadn’t wanted to intimidate Jeongin too much, especially with such a touchy subject.

Jeongin noticeably brightens at the presence of another person, though Jisung feels a pang of guilt that he’s probably about to wipe the smile right off the younger’s face.

“What did you want to talk about?” Jeongin asks. 

“Um… I had a few questions about how it’s going with you and the forest,” Jisung says, wincing at his lack of eloquence. 

“Okay, about what?” Jeongin’s still smiling though, and Jisung guesses that he needs to be more specific.

“You haven’t found your other power yet?” Jisung asks. Bluntly. And—yup—there goes Jeongin’s braces-filled smile. Jisung feels his own mood dampening. 

“Ah… so it’s about that,” Jeongin says. “I thought someone might ask soon enough,” he continues, like he’s choosing his words carefully. 

“Sorry,” Jisung apologizes, fingers nervously, instinctively, reaching to fidget with the ends of his sleeves. 

Jeongin notices this and pats the seat behind the counter next to his with a more reassuring face. “It’s okay. It probably looks odd to the rest of the group. So I’ll explain a little,” he says. 

Jisung feels relief at that statement. If Jeongin’s willing to explain then it can’t be anything too bad, right? “Just a little?” he jokes. 

“Just a little,” Jeongin repeats, eyes darkening. “Jisung, do you trust me?”

“I- out of the blue?” Jisung stutters.  _ Does he?  _ Honestly, he wants to, but he doesn’t know. 

Jeongin takes Jisung’s hesitance as a negative sign. “Right… okay. I know how it must look, so I won’t prod you to answer the question. But I will say this.”

Jeongin turns to look Jisung in the eyes. “You have to trust me when I say that I cannot explain  _ everything  _ to you,” he says slowly. “Even I’m still figuring things out, but from what I know it’s best that as few people know about this as possible, and that the people who do know only know the bare minimum,” he continues. It’s so cryptic. And Jisung’s intrigued. 

“But Jeongin, what about us? Do you trust us?” he returns. “Wouldn’t we be the first people you could trust with this information?”

Jeongin runs a palm down his face. “Believe me, I know how this looks. And I  _ do  _ trust all of you,” he emphasizes. “But you guys are actually the people I have been trying to avoid talking about this with because… because you just  _ can’t  _ know,” he says. “You can’t interfere…”

“Jeongin, what do you mean? Interfere with what?” Jisung leans forward in his seat. Jeongin’s talking to him, sure, but still he has absolutely no idea what he’s supposed to be taking away from Jeongin’s words. 

“I…” Jeongin looks incredibly frustrated. “I just can’t tell you a lot. I know this probably just makes things seem worse but I’ll tell you enough because you guys deserve to know.”

“That’s okay. And thank you,” Jisung says patiently, and is grateful that Jeongin is still willing to explain, even if just a little. 

Jeongin sits there for a moment, gathering his thoughts before he speaks up again. “So, in short… I have discovered my other power,” he begins. “Actually, I have slowly been coming to terms with it for a while; I’ve had hunches about what this power was for a while now.”

“And before you ask, I can’t tell you exactly what that power is,” Jeongin continues as if he’d been reading Jisung’s mind—because Jisung was just about to ask. Jeongin bursts into laughter when Jisung’s face falls and Jisung can’t help chuckling along.

“Look, you’ll understand and I can say that it’ll be revealed soon enough,” Jeongin says. “I just can’t go into those details right now,” he takes another breath. “Trust me on this, please?”

“Okay,” Jisung says, because despite the ominous connotation of those words, Jeongin’s tone is earnest, and Jisung feels like he can trust him. Really wants to, at least.

“To be honest, I’m not even sure why or how this happened to me,” Jeongin adds wryly. “You’ve heard that I went into the forest with Seungmin a long time ago, right?” 

Jisung nods.

“I dunno, maybe somehow some forest magic had already transferred back then and hadn’t really manifested itself until I went back. Because when I went back to the forest a few weeks ago to supposedly get powers, the only power the forest granted me was the shooty thing,” Jeongin explains. “And then the forest told me that I already had everything else I needed, and it was around then that I started confirming some suspicions I’d been having.”

“Okay….” Jisung says. “So this is all just forest magic? Nothing you can’t tell us related to any dealings with dark magic, right?”  _ Way to be subtle, Jisung.  _

Jeongin doesn’t look bothered, though. “No. If that’s what you’re worried about, I can say that I have nothing to do with that dark, scary, stuff,” he says, shuddering. “And even though I can’t say I enjoy hiding secrets from you guys I can definitely say that I’m glad that I’m not dealing with dark magic,” he says. 

Jisung scans Jeongin’s face while he’s saying this, and he seems open, like he’s telling the truth. Which is such a big relief, even if Jeongin still isn’t revealing everything. 

“That’s good,” Jisung says. “Uh… then, sorry if this is prying too much, but the other day I noticed you reacted a bit weirdly to meeting Felix?”

Jeongin’s eyes widen, but he laughs. “I guess I was less obvious about it than I thought. I can’t tell you that either. I’m sorry,” he says, looking genuinely apologetic. 

“Okay. It’s okay,” Jisung says again. “But just… if I trust your word on this… that you’re not telling us because you believe it’s the best thing to do, then I’d hope you could trust us in return and tell us the full truth soon.”

“Oh, believe me, I’ll definitely be telling you guys everything very soon,” Jeongin says. Knowingly? The words to leave Jisung a bit unsettled though.

“And Jisung?” Jeongin calls after him as Jisung’s leaving the shop. 

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry too much,” Jeongin says. “Everything will work out in the end.” He gives Jisung a serene smile.

Even after he’d decided to trust what Jeongin told him, Jisung can’t tell if those last words are more comforting or worrying. 

Either way, there’s only one major area of the forest that they have left to clear. It’s the biggest one by far, but it will be their final mission. If they can restore that area back to health and help all the remaining infested deer, then… they’re done. Done with all the hard work, at least. 

Jisung tries to wrap his mind around the idea that soon after this the forest will be able to return to normal. It should be promising and uplifting, but it just seems like there’s  _ something _ amiss—something that Jisung’s missed. Or maybe he’s just overthinking.

_ Don’t worry too much,  _ Jeongin had said.  _ Everything will work out in the end.  _

  
  



	13. Chapter 13

“Are you up for a weekend hike?” Chan’s voice sizzles through Jisung’s phone speakers. 

Jisung blearily rubs his eyes—he’s sat up in the middle of his bed, having been woken up far too early for a Saturday, yet _again._

And yet: “What if I said no?” Jisung cracks a smile—not that Chan can even see it, but it would take a fool to not know Jisung is joking. 

“Then I’d tell you to put on some clothes and comfortable shoes anyway, and prepare for a _long_ hike and for what is hopefully the last time we’ll have to fight the dark magic.”

“Darn,” Jisung says. “Guess I have to do it, then.”

“Yeah,” Chan replies. Laughs, as if it’s just another normal conversation between friends, as if they’re _just_ going on a fun hike through the woods. “See you soon, Jisung.” 

The line cuts off, and Jisung squints at the screen. Even earlier than before: six in the morning, and it’s still mostly dark outside. 

_Eugh._ Jisung gets dressed despite the tired complaints of his body. 

The last area where the dark magic is still thriving is all the way on the other side of the forest, pretty much as far west and away from their town as possible. It’s going to take a few hours of walking before they even get there. Jisung fills up a water bottle and shoves some snacks into his bag because he’s going to need as much energy as possible once they actually arrive. 

The map had read six exclamation points before and probably more now. Translation: this final area is dangerous as hell and significantly bigger than all the rest that they’ve been to. 

And okay, this is really happening. Jisung at the start of the year could have never predicted he’d end up involved in a forest-saving group of people bestowed with magical powers to combat another darker being that was trying to invade the forest. Jisung at the start of the year would have stood shellshocked at current Jisung if he had known just how many times Jisung has engaged in potentially dangerous activities since then. 

Well, Jisung always did say he liked to risk his life on perilous, unpredictable missions (that’s a lie). But Jisung’s pretty sure he’s technically risked his life far more times in the past months than he thought he ever would, so he might as well treat it as an adventure. 

Jisung sends another text (lie) to his parents that he’s going to spend the day with friends at the music shop and leaves the house, stepping outside into the gloomy near-darkness. The streetlights are still on, casting distorted shadows of Jisung against the sidewalk. Jisung plugs his earbuds into his phone and plays energetic music through them in the hopes that it’ll help wake himself up more. 

A couple days ago, Jisung went with Felix so that he could try testing his newfound powers through the eyes of the infested animals. That had gone…interesting enough, Jisung supposes. Felix said that for the most part there was nothing exciting, except for the fact that it was like looking through the world in darkly tinted glasses. With many deer being restored back to health, they’d settled on spying through the eyes of a badger—that was until the badger Felix was trying to look through spotted them and had run forward and hissed at them menacingly. Felix had to return his point of view to within his own body as they’d drawn the dark magic out of the badger together. Though Felix _had_ pointed out that in those final moments as the badger he’d noticed how Jisung had looked like he was faintly glowing through the dark lens—like a target. Which could probably explain why the dark magic was so receptive to close human presence. 

Further experimenting found that Felix could pretty much jump around viewpoints if the animal was within a certain radius—and a pretty big one at that. How helpful that’ll be? Jisung’s not sure. Guess they’ll find out today.

When Jisung gets to the music store, he’s at least relieved to see that he’s not the only one looking so disgruntled. Chan has an encouraging smile on his face but looks like he wants to be anywhere but there, and Changbin doesn’t even attempt to look alert. When the others arrive soon after, Minho offers him a small smile and only Felix really looks cheerful, words bubbling out of his mouth and eyes alight. Figures. 

They end up doing a sort of awkward group hug in celebration for their last mission because Chan insists on it—though Jisung appreciates the sentiment. 

“Hey,” Chan points out. “If this goes as planned then I won’t be calling you anymore this early in the morning.”

“Thank fuck,” Changbin replies. The group cackles at that, disbanding from the hug, and they head out. 

As they start heading over to the western outskirts of the forest the sun begins to break through the darkness, creating a pretty gradient in the sky in its wake. The light also helps put everyone in higher spirits, and conversation starts filling the silence. At one point Minho sidles up to Jisung and intertwines their hands—to the surprise of nobody, Jisung finds, though Felix does arch his eyebrows in a way Jisung just knows means that Felix is going to ask him about it later. Jisung doesn’t mind—Minho’s hand is warm and grounding, dispelling any nagging doubts Jisung has about their mission and distracting Jisung from thinking about all the things that could go wrong.

Overall, the trek is fairly pleasant, especially considering how much of the rest of the forest is back to health. Along the way, a few deer step out to greet them, and a bird even almost lands on Seungmin’s head once, though Seungmin ducks out of the way before it can. For the most part, the grass is healthy, and the vegetation is thriving. There are still lingering traces of the dark magic, where a particular tree might look especially dead and unsalvageable, but seeing the forest like this makes it a lot less scary. Far less scary that it had seemed months ago, at least.

The sun is fairly high in the sky by the time the map they have indicates that they should be closeby. But it doesn’t take a map for them to notice the difference—the green grass thinning out and giving way to shriveling grey stalks, tree trunks dry and ashy and far less color to be seen. 

Unlike most of the areas that were infested, this one isn’t an open space. Rather, it’s just a section of the woods that has been withered—no clearing, just grey grass and dying trees as far as Jisung can see. 

And the infested deer aren’t as easily spotted—not grouped together, but rather individuals dispersed behind trees and grazing to their own content. There’s no way for them to tell how many infested animals are lurking in this spread-out area, which isn’t good. It’s also going to be easy for them to easily lose track of the deer in here, and even worse, lose track of each other. 

They pair up this time—four small groups so they can cover more area, while the people in each pair can still cover each other. Though they’d already agreed it would be more effective for Minho to go with Seungmin so he could hide them both while Seungmin casted illusions, neither seems happy about it, and Jisung almost cracks a laugh when they reluctantly hold hands (almost—the dark atmosphere stops it from actually happening). 

Jisung and Hyunjin are together this time, which Jisung is kind of thankful for since he knows that Hyunjin’s speed might come in handy if they ever get overwhelmed. Chan had taken Felix again, especially when Jeongin had insisted on being with Changbin, for some reason. Jisung tries not to think about that too hard, only to end up with Jeongin’s words running through his mind again and again. _Everything better work out,_ Jisung thinks, and then he and Hyunjin are running into the action.

It takes them a while to get used to more warily scouting out the landscape before diving headfirst into things, as there aren’t just deer but also other infested animals hiding behind pretty much everywhere. The first minute a rabbit had jumped right in front of their path, buck teeth in view as it snarled at Hyunjin (Jisung thinks that’s the scariest rabbit he’s ever seen).

Eventually, they develop a sort of silent system. Hyunjin in front since he would be quicker to react, and Jisung behind him, ready to help and looking around everywhere else for an animal that might step out of the shadows. The problem is that with all the murky air he can’t see very far, and Jisung has to rely more on his hearing—which he knows is nowhere as good as any of the animals that are trying to pounce on them. 

They occasionally bump into other pairs—once almost running into Seungmin and Minho (whom they couldn’t even see to begin with) until the two materialized in front of them and they had to come to a screeching halt. The next time both Jisung and Hyunjin and Felix and Chan whirl around at the same time only to realize it’s each other, laughing it off before going off in opposite directions. 

The animals get scarcer and scarcer as they lure more and more dark magic out. Jisung is running out of energy, the small backpack feeling heavy against his back even though there’s not much inside, especially when Jisung has also drained half of his water bottle, which had been the heaviest item before. 

Another time Jisung hears the ground pounding and he thrusts his hands out, ready to shoot, only to come across Felix again. That results in relieved laugher tumbling out of both of their mouths, until—

Jisung realizes something, and looks around, and—

“Felix, where’s Chan?”

Felix turns back around, a panicked expression falling over his face. “He was right behind me, I swear.” 

But Chan is nowhere in sight. 

_Chan, can you hear me?_ Jisung tries thinking in his head. No response—the mental message doesn’t seem to be going through, which can’t be a good sign. 

“Okay, okay, think hard,” Jisung says. Hyunjin has also turned back around at the hold-up, looking concerned. “Felix, when do you think you could have lost him? When did you hear the footsteps behind you fade away?”

“Uh, uh,” Felix scrunches his eyes shut, trying to recall every detail of the past few minutes. 

Then they hear a pair of footsteps coming closer. 

“Chan!” Felix opens his eyes and looks in the direction of the oncoming sound. Jisung has an arm out just in case it isn’t the person in question.

Fortunately, it is Chan. 

Unfortunately, it really isn’t. 

Felix is the first to react. He screams. 

“Oh my god!” Hyunjin’s eyes are blown wide. Jisung’s must look the same— _this can’t be happening._

Because Chan’s eyes are vacant and murky and swirling and everything but normal. And there’s a dusty cloud of darkness surrounding him. 

Somehow, the worst of their fears has come true. 

“Get away, get away!” Jisung shouts at the other two, alerting them back to reality so they can sprint a safe distance away.

“What do we do?” Felix hisses, far more panicked than before Chan had actually showed up. 

But the infested Chan doesn’t seem intent on trying to attack them. Instead, the next time they dare to peer out from the tree they’re hidden behind, Chan is gone. Vanished again. 

That’s not good. 

“We have to find him again,” Jisung says. “If we don’t know where he is who knows what he’ll do with dark magic in his system.”

“And try and neutralize him,” Hyunjin adds. “And we have to tell the others.”

“What if any of the others are also…” Felix trails off. 

“We have to hope everyone else is also okay. I want to split up, have someone go warn everyone else while the other two look for Chan. But I don’t know if splitting up is safe,” Jisung says, frantically. 

Hyunjin speaks up. “I’ll try and find everyone else. I’m faster so it would be best if I do it. You two stick together and find Chan.”

“Are you sure?” Felix asks, worried. Hyunjin nods. 

“Stay safe. Watch out for deer, there’s still a lot of them in hiding around here too,” Jisung calls after him, right as a deer does stick its head out of nearby shrubbery and Hyunjin quickly fires a blast of light at it. 

“Okay, okay, let’s go back to where we last saw him,” Jisung says. 

They run back to that spot and stand there for a moment, but they don’t hear anything nearby. A rustle in the bushes has them on edge, but it’s only a squirrel running out. 

Jisung spins around in his spot, trying to figure out where the dark magic might possibly want Chan, but he’s overwhelmed. Chan could be anywhere. 

“Jisung, I’m scared,” Felix says. “What’s going on, why did it take him but not me?”

How is Jisung supposed to answer that? He doesn’t know. Where is Chan? He doesn’t know. But… 

“Felix, can you try hopping through some of the viewpoints of the animals in this area? Maybe one of them is within eyesight of Chan,” Jisung realizes. 

“Right, good idea,” Felix says, having almost forgotten his own abilities in their panicked haste. Jisung waits for a moment as Felix closes his eyes, wondering if Felix will be able to find something.

“Oh!” Felix suddenly blurts. “I’m not sure.. Maybe that was him, maybe it wasn’t?”

“Which direction?” Jisung anxiously asks.

“I can’t tell…I don’t really know where the animal I’m looking through is located to begin with.” Felix’s face falls. “Maybe this way?”

They end up heading back the way they had originally come before they ran into Chan in the first place because chances are that they would have heard Chan if he followed them in the opposite direction.

Nothing. 

They help get the dark magic out of some deer, but there’s still no sign of Chan. 

Then footsteps. 

Both Jisung and Felix swivel around at once, only to come face-to-face with a breathless Hyunjin, who’s accompanied by Jeongin. 

“Changbin’s gone too,” is the first thing Hyunjin says. Then he sees the expressions on their faces and hurriedly clarifies. “But Jeongin says the last time he saw him Changbin was fine. So the dark magic probably didn’t get him. He’s just… also disappeared.”

Jeongin looks strangely calm—too calm. It takes Jisung only a moment before he turns to Jeongin, angrily. “What did you do?” he spits. He had really wanted to trust Jeongin, but he has so many doubts now. 

Jeongin doesn’t even bat an eye. “ _I_ didn’t do anything. I didn’t do anything you think I could have done, at least.”

“Bullshit,” Jisung says. “You were with Changbin. You even insisted you were paired up with him. You know something.” 

“I...do,” Jeongin slowly responds. Hyunjin gapes, betrayed—Jeongin is one of his close friends, after all. Felix just looks lost. 

Jeongin continues. “But for now let’s get Seungmin and Minho so we can clear this area of the forest. Then I can finally explain everything.”

“Oh, and just forget about Chan and Changbin?” Jisung asks. 

Jeongin’s face is flat, devoid of emotion when he speaks again. “Jisung. I can’t know how you possibly feel, but I am still on your side. I said everything would be okay, right? You have to trust me. Everything will be okay. Deal with this part of the forest first, we’ve almost cleared it.”

Jisung takes a deep breath. Beside him, Hyunjin clenches his fist. “Jeongin—” Hyunjin begins, only to be cut off. 

“No. Chan and Changbin _will_ be okay, I’ve seen it,” Jeongin says. 

“You’ve… _seen_ it?” Felix curiously asks. “What do you mean?” 

The word choice. Something starts to click in Jisung’s head. But _how? How is that possible?_

Jeongin ignores Felix’s question, pushing on. “We _have_ to clear this area of the forest first, though. And once we’re done gather Minho and Seungmin together and then I’ll explain.” Finally, a crack of emotion in his eyes. Jeongin is pleading. “Please. This looks really bad, I know. But please listen to me.”

Jisung sighs, though his brain is still racing, trying to piece things together. He thinks he might know what Jeongin means, though he’ll have to confirm it later. “It’s not like we can really do anything else right now, anyway. We have no idea where those two went. So you win, Jeongin.”

“Sorry,” Jeongin says. The problem is that he really sounds sorry and Jisung feels bad for getting so angry at the younger. “It will all make sense, soon enough.”

“Jeongin….” Hyunjin starts again, eyes sad. “What—why…”

“There’s no point, he won’t spill until all this is over,” Jisung says. _And I think I’m starting to realize why._ “And we don’t really have an alternative, so we’ll do what he says. But let’s all stick together—and keep each other covered. We don’t want to lose any more people, and I certainly don’t want Jeongin out of my sight,” Jisung says. 

It turns out raw determination is a force to be reckoned with. The four whirl through the forest like a hurricane, drawing out every speck of dark magic they can see from inside infested animals. Even Jeongin seems bent on doing as much as he can, eyes alert and mouth set into a tight line as he concentrates on their surroundings. 

Eventually, they also run into Seungmin and Minho again. 

Seungmin is quick to notice something wrong. “Why are all four of you together? And where are Chan and Changbin?”

“Chan’s… infested,” Jisung says. “Changbin’s gone, but hopefully still safe. And this kid knows something but won’t tell us what.” He points to Jeongin. 

Minho, for the most part, looks unsurprised. After Jisung’s conversation with Jeongin the other day, Jisung had told Minho about Jeongin’s insistence that everything was okay, but reluctance to explain just what secrets he was hiding. And Jisung is _really_ starting to understand the enormity of those secrets.

As for Seungmin… “Oh, I knew you were hiding something,” Seungmin says, narrowing his eyes. “You totally reacted weirdly to meeting Minho and Changbin.”

Jisung hadn’t noticed that, but it seems like he wasn’t the only one harboring suspicions. Minho’s face is curious. “Me?” he asks. 

“Sorry, Seungmin,” Jeongin apologizes. “But, um, we’ve cleared the area now, right?”

“I guess,” Seungmin says, eyes still on Jeongin. “The only animals we’ve been running into recently are the ones that are frozen or recovering.”

“Okay.” Jeongin sighs. All eyes are on him now. “Since we’re all here, I guess it’s time for me to explain everything,” he says. “But first, let’s start walking to the forest heart.”

“Why?” Seungmin is quick to ask. 

“I’ll explain on the way there. Trust me, okay?”

Seungmin looks like he has a million more things to say but nods instead. Jeongin steps forward to take the lead, and they follow him towards the center of the forest. 

“So… you all know how I went into the forest a long time ago, with.. Seungmin,” Jeongin begins. “I guess that was when I got it. My first power, I mean.”

“Yeah, I’ve had my abilities all this time, but in a sense they had only really awakened lately, probably because the forest was in danger,” Jeongin explains. Then he drops the next statement casually, as if he’s talking about the weather. “In short, my dreams allow me to see the future.”

And there it is. A simple statement, the truth laid bare. Jisung’s earlier hunches had been correct. 

The group is still walking forward, but the rest of them are pretty much all in shock, various expressions appearing on their faces. The thing is—it makes sense. The more Jisung thinks about it, the more the pieces fall into place—why Jeongin had seemingly faster reaction times when he had really seen scenes play out before and had known what to expect, why Jeongin had continued being so cryptic but had continued to try and make the others trust him, and why he’d told Jisung _everything would work out in the end._

“At first, I wasn’t sure. I thought my dreams were just weird dreams,” Jeongin says. “You know, just a creative imagination of a high schooler and that sort of stuff. But then all of you started appearing, and—heck—I didn’t even know who some of you were but you were in my dreams. Then I found out that there really were strange things going in the forest, the very forest I was dreaming about. When I first met Changbin and Minho in the music shop that one day, I guess I was startled because it confirmed my thoughts—you were the people in my dreams, and I could see the future.” 

“What about Felix, then?” Jisung asks. “If you already knew he was going to be there too, then why’d you react so weirdly to him?”

Jeongin grimaces. “Sorry, Felix. I’m really sorry. This one isn’t going to be happy. Before I met you I’d only had one dream if you—and in that dream I saw the dark magic entering your body. Remember what happened on the last mission? But I woke up before I could see that the magic would also leave your body right after, so the moment I met you I just remembered that dream and all I could think was that you were going to be hurt.”

“And having only seen the first part, you didn’t try to stop it?” Seungmin asks. “What if he could have died…”

“That’s also why I didn’t want to tell you guys _anything_ before,” Jeongin says. “It’s one thing to see the future, but it’s another thing to try and alter it. What if something far worse happens instead?”

Jisung is only starting to feel worse and worse—Jeongin had not only been harboring a secret but also a burden all this time. He can’t even begin to imagine how living with all this foresight might feel, even if it’s supposed to be a useful power. 

“Sorry for basically interrogating you earlier,” Jisung apologizes. 

“It’s okay,” Jeongin replies. “If I were you I’d feel the same. You didn’t know—you couldn’t have known.”

Seungmin is still thinking, the incident with Felix replaying in his head. “But then… we still don’t know why the dark magic left Felix once it entered. That’s still strange.”

Felix himself is deep in thought, but he doesn’t seem particularly angry, especially having heard Jeongin’s reasoning.

Jeongin takes a deep breath, addressing the entire group this time. “Okay, listen to me closely on this one. Even I don’t exactly know why it didn’t try and invade Felix’s body, but I think I have an idea.”

“What is it?” Hyunjin asks. 

“Sorry, sorry, I need to collect my thoughts so I get this out coherently,” Jeongin says, after a period of silence. “Uh… so basically we’re going to the forest heart because Chan and Changbin are both headed there. I know this because I dreamed of this very thing a few nights ago.”

“Then why aren’t we going faster,” Jisung finds himself asking. “They could be in danger!” 

“Everything will be alright,” Jeongin says, raising his voice. “It will be. I saw a happy ending for all of us.”

“Right. Right, okay, sorry again” Jisung replies. “Go on.”

Jeongin laughs. “Stop apologizing. And in my dream, I saw Chan being taken over by the dark magic. Once that happened, the infested Chan immediately started heading towards the forest center. It’s because the dark magic wants to use Chan to get right to the heart of the forest, in a last-ditch attempt to make irreversible damage. If the forest heart got attacked, we wouldn’t be able to save it, since it’s the source of all our own powers,” Jeongin says, and immediately there’s a wave of responses. He holds his hand up. “But the dark magic won’t be able to, because I’ve also seen how it turns out. That’s why you guys couldn’t know. I didn’t want any risk of ruining this.”

“If that’s the case… then how did your dream go down?” Minho asks. 

Jeongin takes a deep breath. “It has to do with something that’s going on between Chan and Changbin. Before you ask, I don’t know why it’s those two. But basically, in my dream, I told Changbin a bit about what I knew, and I told him to go after Chan to stop him.”

“So Changbin knows,” Seungmin says flatly, maybe disappointed that Jeongin hadn’t told his friend instead.

“Look, it was what was supposed to happen. And only the bare minimum,” Jeongin says. “And it was best that only one person went after Chan, so that the rest of us could finish dealing with the infested part of the forest.”

“Then, Changbin is the one who saves Chan?” Hyunjin asks.

“No.” Jeongin says. “He only stops Chan from attacking the forest heart.”

“Then who saves him?” Jisung is the one to ask this time. But he thinks he might know.

Jeongin turns around to look at them, a fire ignited in his eyes. “We do. Together.”

Then he does a scan of their surroundings. “And now we should be quite close to the heart, according to my dream. So it’s time to start channeling your powers. I’m not going to tell you guys any other details of the dream in case it trips up your actions, but remember that it will all be okay,” he says. 

They step into the clearing. 

Actually, Jisung almost laughs, even though it shouldn’t be funny. 

Changbin is sitting on Chan, pinned him to the ground, Jisung supposes. 

“Took you long enough,” Changbin has the audacity to sound like everything is perfectly fine, looking up to Jeongin as they approach. Underneath Changbin, an infested Chan is writhing around. His face is turned towards the heart of the forest, but Changbin has his palms covered firmly over Chan’s eyes and mouth, a steady glow of light fighting the stream of dark magic that’s trying to escape out of them. 

There’s a moment where they just take in the sight.

“Um, a little help would be nice. The amount of dark magic inside of him is… almost overwhelming, to be honest,” Changbin says. 

“Uncover his mouth and eyes—and look away so you don’t make eye contact—and then when the dark magic tries to jump out we all fire at once?” Seungmin suggests. 

“I’ll stand in front of the forest heart,” Minho quickly volunteers, running to the tree. “Just in case.”

“Okay,” Changbin says. “Three, two, one…” he removes his hands. 

Jisung glimpses expressionless eyes for a moment. Immediately after, the dark magic inside Chan floods out into the air, leaving Chan’s mouth in a frenzied rush. Chan slumps against the ground.

They all fire at the intense cloud of dark magic, and the colliding magical forces clash against each other. For a moment, there’s just this giant swirling mass in the air, a whirlwind of fury scrabbling against the light that is slowly but surely beginning to envelop it. Then the mass swells bigger and bigger until the two great forces finally neutralize each other and it explodes—in a giant cloud of both color and not-color Jisung can’t describe. Jisung flinches away, and when he thinks it’s safe to look back he sees a sort of translucent grey mist falling to the ground, though all the droplets fizzle into the air before they can actually land. 

Just like that, it’s over.

When Jisung glances back at Chan, his eyes are regaining some color. Then they flutter shut, and a lone dark tear drips out and rolls onto the ground, where it sizzles and fades away. 

Changbin stands up, hands falling to his sides. He looks concerned.

Jisung rushes over, immediately checking for injuries to heal. But it seems there aren’t any. 

“Chan, wake up,” Felix is saying, shaking Chan. The eyes don’t open, though. 

Instinctively, Jisung places his hands on Chan’s face, feeling the magic leave him as he channels it into the elder. Chan’s eyebrow twitches, and then he’s blinking his eyes open again, looking at the concerned faces over him. 

“Hi,” he says weakly. Then: “Sorry.” Chan’s eyes close again. Then open again. “Before you ask, I’m okay, just… give me a moment.” Tentatively, he moves his fingers, then his feet. A while later, he’s pulled himself up into a sitting position. He coughs. A darkish blob—maybe magical remnants—comes flying out of his mouth, and everyone jerks away. The blob pools in the grass and drains into the soil, leaving a dark patch but otherwise seeming not to be harmful. 

“Eugh,” Chan says, coughing again. Nothing comes up this time. “Glad that’s gone.”

Someone exhales first. It sets off a chain of reactions, as they all lean back into the plush grass in the clearing, relieved. 

“Wow,” Hyunjin is the first to speak. “That was… quite a day.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, once you’re feeling up to it, what… happened?” Jeongin asks Chan, because even he doesn’t know the details.

“Hah... that is the wildest story,” Chan laughs weakly, burying his head into his hands. “I’ll explain, but I’m sorry. Weird things happened, and I didn’t even have much control over them, but I also think it had to be done.”

“What… what did you do?” Changbin asks.

“Made a deal with the devil,” Chan jokes. Nobody laughs, and his expression sobers up. “Uh. I did… kinda… sorta… make a deal with the dark magic, though.”

And that is something Jisung thought he would never hear. 

“You can… do that?” Jisung asks. 

“What did you do?” This time Minho is the one to ask. 

“Well… Jeongin, Hyunjin, Felix, you guys weren’t a part of the group when this happened, but it does apply to you. As for the rest of you, do you remember back when we went into the forest as a group. It was the first time—we just wanted to help one deer, and see how it would go?”

“I was healing the deer and then something happened and you suddenly ran back into to help?” Jisung pipes up, the memory resurfacing in his mind. “But wasn’t that all that happened? Things were getting out of hand since Changbin tripped, but he was luckily okay.”

“I tripped, and I thought the dark magic was going to get me, but luckily I just got away,” Changbin says. “That’s how I remember it too,”

“That wasn’t all that happened,” Chan admits. “When I ran back, I arrived just in time to see Changbin tripping—”

“Oh fun,” Changbin says sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood.

“And… the dark magic was going to get you, Changbin. It _was_ ,” Chan emphasizes. “Back then, we didn’t have our other powers yet. I could only communicate with the forest. But it turns out that I could sort of communicate with the dark magic too.”

“You… what?” Hyunjin asks, mouth agape.

“Sort of. Mostly just one way communication. I remember there was only one thought in my head over and over and I was just hoping the dark magic wasn’t going to get you even though I knew it was too close to you and it would. I was just thinking that I’d rather have it be me than any of you guys—”

“Chan!” Changbin has whirled on him, angry now. 

“So I guess it happened accidentally, in a way” Chan continues. “One moment, the dark magic was about to enter your body, and the next, I heard a scary voice in my head and it was saying _Okay, you have your wish._ And then when I looked at you again the dark magic was gone. And I felt fine. So I thought we had just been lucky even though I was scared that I had done something. But nothing went wrong yet, at least not immediately, so I just tried to forget that ever happened.” 

“Um… so I guess that’s why the dark magic couldn’t infest any of you. But it could still take me, and it got me at the end instead… I guess it was planning on trying to use me to get to the forest heart at the end all along. And yeah I never want to experience that again. It was horrible, being trapped in my body while something else took over. I’m sorry,” Chan says. “I’m sorry that had to happen,” he says again. “But it all worked out okay?” he cracks a smile. 

“Holy shit,” Jeongin breathes—maybe it’s the first time Jisung’s heard him curse. “And I thought I was the only one with a secret….” 

_Of course Chan would think that,_ Jisung thinks. _Selfless almost to a fault._ Maybe that’s why Jisung bursts into tears on the spot, because _Chan, what the fuck._ The thing is… Jisung feels like he might have thought the same way had he been in Chan’s position. 

Everyone else has similar expressions of disbelief mirrored on their faces. Changbin, the closest, moves first, sweeping Chan in a hug as he stands up. Minho and Felix are quick to join in, and soon the rest, until it becomes a massive, teary, group hug. 

_What the fuck, what the fuck,_ Jisung thinks some more. As well as _I’m so glad we’re all alive._ He blinks away the blurriness in his eyes. 

“Okay… so I almost can’t believe it, but _that_ happened,” Seungmin voices for them, probably speaking far more eloquently than the jumble of thoughts in Jisung’s head. “But I’m so glad that we’re all safe now and that… we’re done with this whole ordeal.” 

“How did that deal even work, though?” Minho wonders. 

Chan just chuckles and shakes his head. “How does magic work? It just does. I guess you’ll just have to satisfy your curiosity in other ways because—thankfully—the dark magic isn’t here anymore to answer it for you.”

Silvery laughter cuts through the air. _Thank you. Thank you,_ the forest tells them. _Truly… you have helped me so much._

Felix gets this light in his eyes and he breaks the hug, bounding over to the massive tree at the forest center and going to hug it instead. “I’m glad you’re okay, too,” Felix says. 

_Well… that was the goal,_ comes the voice, and more wispy laughter reverberates through the clearing. Jisung snickers, and they follow Felix, taking their massive group hug around the tree instead. 

And the tree is more alive than ever—flowers effervescent and teeming from between green leaves, glowing brilliantly and petals reaching outward. The heart at the center of the trunk beats peacefully, carefree. 

As they break off the hug it finally begins to really sink in. They really did it. And a small group of teenagers, no less. 

Even Soonie steps out to join the celebration—for once letting others pet her as she passes by. The group has taken to lounging in the soft grass again, and Jisung pulls a couple granola bars he had stuffed into his bag, splitting them into pieces to share with the others. 

Finally—finally, they can relax in the forest without the nagging thought in the back of their minds that they might be ambushed, or that there’s danger nearby. 

The town will never even know what happened, Jisung thinks. But no matter what the town thinks, finally the rumors are really just rumors; there is no dark magic. 

But there is still the bright warm magic of the forest, the magic that belongs there. And when the forest heart welcomes him with open arms and tinkling laughter, Jisung’s… kind of glad he found himself involved with all this in the first place. Over the course of a few months, he’s discovered some pretty nice scenic spots, met a snarky talking cat, healed many animals, fought a scary being, and… found himself a good group of friends.

Under the shade of the flourishing tree, amongst the others that the forest had beckoned here, Jisung has one thought: _this_ is not a dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back, so hopefully this was a satisfactory reveal, haha!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're feeling like it, [here's](https://open.spotify.com/track/6zawsPsqVR6hTtRLSoddzJ?si=j2Iib3tZSu-y3pLfUdjlKQ) something to listen to while you read. I think it's fitting, haha.

**SCHOOL FORUMS**

_18 March 20XX_

7:05 PM **AnonStudent** \- hey this is random but has anyone been seeing some kids going into the forest lately?

7:27 PM **justaperson** \- you’ve seen them too? i think they might be from our high school…

7:36 PM **AnonStudent** \- i was just curious… cuz aren’t there those scary rumors and stuff

7:38 PM **justaperson** \- you could always go and find out, how scary can the forest really be? just a bunch of trees anyway…

7:39 PM **justaperson** \- besides, they were probably just curious about it themselves

7:40 PM **AnonStudent** \- lol, ur right. 

7:40 PM **AnonStudent** \- oh shoot if they’re from our school doesn’t that mean they could be reading this…

7:40 PM **justaperson** \- not many still ppl use these forums anyway

7:40 PM **justaperson** \- _[deleted]_

7:41 PM **AnonStudent** \- anyway, if anyone’s also taking biology rn can they help me understand ch 16, thanksss

_2 April 20XX_

4:10 PM **AnonStudent** \- there’s just been a cat chilling outside the cafe i work at for the past hour now. it keeps staring at the music shop across the street. 

4:10 PM **AnonStudent** \- it looks so cozy all curled up under the overhang, haha

4:11 PM **AnonStudent** \- should i see if it has an owner?

4:13 PM **AnonStudent** \- update: no collar. also the cat hissed at me when i tried to get close

4:16 PM **ilikeweekends** \- maybe it’s doing fine own its own. 

4:26 PM **AnonStudent** \- oh, it left now. ran towards the forest. do you think it lives there?

\---

“This is going to sound weird, have any of you felt like you were being followed lately?” Seungmin asks.

“As if anyone would want to stalk you,” Jeongin is quick to make a witty reply. 

“Hey!” Seungmin glares at him. “Hiding secrets is one thing—but now you’re talking up to your elders?”

“Aw, but we’re friends,” Jeongin says. “Surely you’re not actually upset?”

“Of course not,” Seungmin easily replies, scoffing. He ruffles Jeongin’s hair good-naturedly. 

“Anyway… about the question,” Seungmin says. 

“Um… I don’t think I’m being followed,” Hyunjin answers. “Are you sure everything’s fine? Do you want us to walk home with you today?”

“Hmmm,” Seungmin muses. “I don’t think it’s like that.”

“What do you mean?” Hyunjin asks. 

A flash of movement catches Seungmin’s eye, across the school courtyard. “Oh!” he exclaims. “Oh… huh… okay.”

“What? What is it?” Hyunjin asks again, curious.

But Seungmin is smiling now. “Do you ever just… have a moment when you think you’re being sneaky but you really aren’t?” he asks.

Jeongin and Hyunjin can only make eye contact with each other and shrug. 

\---

The animal shelter hasn’t been very busy today, so when Felix suddenly notices that the front door has been left open he narrows his eyes. 

He doesn’t _think_ that any of the customers left the door open as they were leaving, but then again, he wasn’t particularly paying attention—when he’s spending time with the cats and dogs, it’s easy to forget about everything else. So Felix doesn’t think much of it as he gets up and closes the door. 

Then an ear-piercing yowl sends Felix scrambling back to where he had left a few of the cats out—he really hopes they didn’t get into any fights while he was gone. 

As Felix enters the room, some of the cats look distraught. But they aren’t _fighting._ And most of the other cats look more disturbed to have been woken up from the screeching than anything else. 

“Aw, what’s gotten you guys so worked up?” he asks. 

Of course, there’s no answer. 

But Felix misses the creamy white-and-orange striped tail as it swiftly disappears around the corner. 

\---

“Jisung,” Minho laughs, but it’s tinged with fondness and bemusement.

“Sorry,” Jisung says. “But also not sorry. You could join me.”

It’s not something Jisung has ever specifically put on his bucket list, and not something he would ever really want to do, but he can’t say he dislikes it, either. For the last minute, Jisung has been hugging a tree—arms wrapped around the trunk as he stares up into the dreary grey canopy. The tree isn’t quite dead, but had rather been infested before and still looks a deathly, lifeless shade. However, the longer Jisung stands there, the more magic seeps from his hands to the trunk, and it travels up through the network of vascular tissues to the branches and leaves. Slowly but surely, the tree regains some color, blooming back to life in Jisung’s arms. 

_A parting gift,_ the forest had said. Now that the dark magic had been eliminated, the forest couldn’t keep putting its energy into sustaining their powers forever. 

As per Jeongin’s wishes, the forest had immediately taken back his power of foresight when Jeongin said he didn’t have any desire to dream the future anymore. Jisung thinks he can sympathize with that, and hopes Jeongin can have truly sweet dreams from now on, rather than dreams that will plague his thoughts.

As for the rest of them, the forest had also taken away most of their magic—which, okay, maybe Jisung’s a bit sad about, but at least the forest isn’t in danger anymore, and at least Jisung will just be back to living life as a normal high-schooler (with some less normal adventures and memories tucked into his back pocket).

Though, they aren’t magic-free quite yet. Before they left the forest heart, it had granted them each a limited amount of magic to heal with. It had wanted to restore the rest of the forest environment back to health—the plants and trees which they couldn’t really do anything about before. 

Hence… Jisung is tree-hugging. To heal the tree. That’s one way to get close to nature, he supposes. Not as if he hasn’t already been involving himself deeper and deeper with nature since mid-winter.

“Jisung, an ant started crawling on your shoulder,” Minho says, laughing at him. “Careful. Oh—and there’s a leaf in your hair again!”

“Really?” Jisung asks, skeptical. For all he knows, Minho could be trying to fool him again. 

But nope. Minho picks out a crinkled grey leaf and dangles it in front of his eyes. “Yup,” he confirms. 

Minho stops dangling the leaf in front of him. There’s a flick to his shoulder. “And the ant’s gone, now,” Minho adds. 

“Alright.” Jisung lets a bit more magic leave his hands and then steps away from the tree, watching as a deep green color fills the rest of the leaves. 

“You’re doing it next time,” Jisung says, grinning at Minho. “Then I get to laugh at how ridiculous you’ll look.”

“Mhm, if you say so,” Minho says. He takes Jisung’s hand in his own, picnic basket swinging from his other hand. 

The scent of evergreens fill Jisung’s nose, and the walk is soft and peaceful—the light thump of their footfalls against the grass, save for the occasional crinkle of a stepped-on leaf, the call of a bird in the canopies above, or the chittering of some animal as it darts between bushes. The midday spring sun filters through the treetops in warm rays, and the light breeze is soothing. 

Jisung hears the gentle rush of water before he sees the river, and knows they must be close. 

“Race you to the waterfall,” Minho suddenly says, dropping Jisung’s hand and bursting forward. 

“Okay—wait, Minho, _wait!_ ” Jisung hasn’t even agreed when Minho breaks into a run, nimbly hopping over fallen branches and rocks. Even if Minho can’t magically blend into the surroundings anymore, he’s still as swift, and Jisung struggles to keep up. The pounding of his footsteps get louder, accompanied by the steadily increasing sound of flowing water as the river widens and approaches the waterfall. 

“You gave yourself a head start!” Jisung calls between breaths. 

“Whoops,” Minho throws over his shoulder, smiling brightly, and not looking the least out of breath. Jisung forgives him, but only because Minho looks so pretty. 

They arrive at the base of the waterfall soon enough, and Jisung bends down as he catches his breath. “Let’s not do that again,” he pants. 

“You only say that because you know you won’t win,” Minho says, grinning at him. Both the waterfall and the thrum of his heartbeat are pounding in Jisung’s ears after the run, but Jisung is nothing if not competitive. 

“Okay, okay,” Jisung relents. Then, just as Minho had sprung the race on him, Jisung shouts, “Race you to the top!” and makes a break for the rocks. He doesn’t look behind him and he doesn’t have time to dwell on his fear of heights—he can’t give Minho time to react either. 

Minho’s still faster, overtaking him halfway as he tries to find the right ledges to place his feet on. Minho arrives at the top in a minute despite the picnic basket hindering one of his arms. Jisung follows and pulls himself up seconds later, scaling the rocks until he reaches the mouth of the waterfall and the thundering begins to fade away. 

“Told you,” Minho says, grinning at him. Jisung childishly sticks out his tongue but grins back.

Up here, they have a nice view of the part of the forest now below them, as they’re about level with the treetops that they just emerged from. 

“We should sit in the grass this time,” Minho says. “I’m not sure if I want to risk food over the water.”

So they carefully step across the rocks lining the riverbank, which leads them further down the river and away from the mouth of the water. Eventually, the rocks break off into proper ground and softer grass, and Minho unfolds the blanket on a drier spot a short distance from the riverbank. Jisung eagerly sits down, making grabby hands for the picnic basket. 

“What did you bring?”

“Just sandwiches. And some fruit,” Minho says, shrugging. “Hot food would’ve been harder to pack.”

Jisung digs through the basket, pulling out the sandwiches and giving one to Minho. For the most part, they munch in silence. But the sound of swaying leaves and the river flowing over the rocks and the faint hum of the waterfall are calming, and Jisung feels himself almost drifting away into the air. 

“You know, the last time we went here,” Minho begins. “When we were leaving, I was almost gonna kiss you.”

Jisung has finished his sandwich and is peeling an orange. His fingers freeze for a moment because Minho’s tone is so nonchalant.

“Okay,” Jisung says. He starts peeling again. The citrus smell leaks further into the air.

Minho laughs at Jisung’s lack of a response. “I chickened out though.”

“Okay,” Jisung says again, removing the last of the orange peel with his thumb. He finally brings himself to look up, and sees Minho just staring at him. So, so, softly. 

Jisung stares back (he is _so_ glad none of the others are here or there’d be neverending teasing). Then his hands get antsy with nothing to do, so he pulls off an orange slice and offers it to Minho. 

“Thanks,” Minho says, biting it out of Jisung’s hand with his lips. He’s eyes are still on Jisung’s face. 

“Jisung,” Minho starts again. “All the excitement from the forest and dark magic is over.”

“Yeah,” Jisung nods along, “What an adventure…”

Minho seems to be leading somewhere else. “So. I figured I should finally ask you properly… will you be my boyfriend?”

Jisung’s fingers still halfway through pulling off another orange slice. But the question doesn’t come as that much of a surprise to him. He’d actually thought about asking himself, but they had all just been really busy the last week. 

Jisung leans forward to press a soft kiss to Minho’s lips. “Yes,” he says, pulling back to look at Minho’s shining eyes. “I would love to.”

Minho grins. “Good. Me too.” 

Jisung feels like he’s about to dissolve into a puddle of melted sugar on the spot. But instead he finishes the last of his orange and stands up. “My hands are sticky now,” he says, when Minho lifts a questioning eyebrow. The river is only a few steps away so he dips his hands in, feeling the cool water rush through his fingertips in a calming manner. 

An idea strikes him. He brings his hands out of the water, takes a step back toward Minho, and flicks his wet hands at Minho with all his might, raining wet droplets on him. 

Minho flinches and glares at him. “Oh, you’re on,” he says. It doesn't sound threatening enough.

Jisung laughs, dipping his hands in and flicking more water at Minho before he can even stand up. 

Then he runs away, along the riverbank at full speed. He hears footsteps gaining on him so Jisung quickly stops and crouches to submerge his hands in the river again—preparing for one more valiant attack as Minho catches up to him. Jisung panics for a second when, in the distance, he watches the ends of their picnic blanket flare up with the breeze, but then he relaxes when he sees the basket keeping it weighed down. 

Minho stops in front of him, but his hands are dry. Jisung decides not to spray water on him again and smiles up at Minho instead. 

“Caught you,” Minho says. 

Jisung shrugs, standing up and flapping his hands so the water falls off into the grass instead. “Alright.”

Nothing happens, until Minho leans forward and kisses him, soft and sweet.

“Wow, what a scary attack,” Jisung mumbles. Then Minho jabs a finger into his side and Jisung shrieks, shooting away from him. 

“Okay, I get it!” Jisung says, now extremely wary. Minho cackles without mercy. 

“I’ll tickle you back,” Jisung says, when Minho doesn’t stop laughing at him. 

“Nope. I’m faster, remember? And I definitely have faster reflexes,” Minho tells him, self-assured.

Jisung doesn’t think so. He steps forward. Minho stays where he is. A stare-off ensues.

“Okay, let’s just kiss without any more sneak attacks,” Minho relents. “Sorry for poking you.”

Jisung narrows his eyes at him, but Minho just continues staring back. 

“Fine,” Jisung eventually says. He takes another cautious step forward. 

“Wait, look.” Minho suddenly points to something behind him. 

Jisung doesn’t move—he’s still suspicious; knowing Minho, he wouldn’t put it past him to tickle Jisung the moment he turns around.

“No, really,” Minho says, reading his thoughts. “Deer,” he explains.

Jisung finally turns around to see multiple deer emerging from the trees, coming to the riverbank a short distance away to drink. He feels his chest warming at the sight—they’re all healthy, with lustrous fur and warm eyes. One has large, sprawling antlers, spreading out to the sides as it dips its head down to lap at the water. There are also a couple calves, skinny legs awkwardly bent as they lean down toward the river. 

“Let’s leave them be,” Minho whispers, putting an arm around Jisung. Some of the deers’ ears twitch at the sound, but they continue drinking, and Jisung turns around, letting Minho quietly steer them back to the picnic blanket. 

“Do you ever think about things like… fate?” Jisung asks, once they’ve settled back down.

Minho laughs quietly. “That’s random. I don’t know. Why?”

“It’s just… what if I never dropped my keys? What if I never ran after Soonie? What if I never wanted to enter the forest, or what if I didn’t follow you back in?” Jisung folds his legs up to his chest, setting his chin on his knees. “Sometimes I just lay awake at night and I can’t help but _wonder,_ you know?”

“Ah…” Minho stares off into the distance. “I guess, when you put it like that, there’s so many things that you could have _not_ done, right?”

Jisung nods. 

“However,” Minho continues, “I feel like you still would’ve gone into the forest in the end—the forest has its magic and its secrets and it was going to find a way to get your help regardless… that no matter your choices you still would have found yourself here in the end… so I guess it does seem fated, then.”

“But I could have just not gone in, ever,” Jisung says. 

“But you didn’t,” Minho replies simply. “I don’t necessarily believe in fate, but… I kind of believe in the forest’s magic.”

“I mean, I don’t regret helping out, and I’m glad I did, but, you know, that could sound creepy, too,” Jisung points out. “That’s like saying we had no choice but to help the forest?”

Minho furrows his eyebrows. “Then… I guess you did still have a choice. You could have backed out at any time, probably, but you just… didn’t? But was it fated for you to make those choices? Who knows,” Minho finishes, chuckling. 

Jisung’s face is still thoughtful, eyes unfocused as he considers the words. “I just also sometimes wonder why it was us… like, we know why the forest didn’t want children and older adults, but… there’s so many other people that it could have lent its magic to…”

“In this sad little town?” Minho scoffs. “Just kidding. But yeah, I guess that’s just something I started taking for granted. At some point, I just accepted that this is how it is.”

“Besides,” Minho adds, playfully nudging Jisung with his elbow, “I have said that you have a caring heart. I couldn’t see anyone else replacing you in the group.”

“And you’re pretty cool yourself,” Jisung nudges him back. “Guess it was just meant to be, then?”

“Maybe,” Minho reponds. “It’s over, anyway, and look what came out of it.” He points to Jisung and then himself, and smiles. 

“Disgusting,” Jisung complains, but he buries his face into his knees, hiding his stupid grin. 

And Minho bursts into laughter. 

The forest is alive again—and here, in the midst of it all, as the deer elegantly retreat back into the undergrowth and Minho laughs at his side, Jisung thinks he too understands what it means to be alive.

  
  
  


\--- _a few days later ---_

There’s the sound of both footsteps and laughter approaching the back room, and Jisung looks up just in time to see Chan poking his head through the door.

“Jisung, you might want to see this,” Chan says. His eyes are filled with mirth and he’s practically wheezing. 

“Nope. Busy,” Jisung waves him off, scribbling down lyrics for a song they had started working on. Even if he has a nagging urge to figure out just what Chan finds so funny.

“No, really,” Chan insists. 

“Sorry. Later,” Jisung says, because he will not be interrupted while the creativity is freely flowing out of him, and when the lyrics are coming out so easily. 

Chan shrugs helplessly, laughter dying down. “If you say so.” But he leaves looking like he’s busting to say more. 

Two minutes later Changbin is the one leaning against the door frame. “Hadn’t expected you to be the one holing yourself up here in the back of the music shop—almost thought I’d find Chan here at first.”

“Mhm,” Jisung agrees absentmindedly.

“Jisung, you should come outside.”

“I’m busy,” Jisung says, reiterating his words to Chan.

“Jisung, you have a special visitor who wants to see you. And I think you’ll be interested in seeing them too,” Changbin sing-songs.

“Minho?” Jisung perks up.

“No—and wipe those starry eyes off your face,” Changbin says, snickering at how Jisung had been quick to jump to conclusions and get excited so easily.

“Shut up,” Jisung retorts, ears burning. “Who is it, then?”

“Just go out and see. They won’t be there forever,” Changbin says mysteriously. He sticks his head into the room one more time before leaving. “You know you want to,” Changbin whispers, wiggling his eyebrows dramatically.

 _Dammit._ Jisung jots down one more line and stands up, sending his chair screeching backward. Changbin’s laughter echoes down the hallway. 

Up front, Chan smirks knowingly at him as Jisung passes by. Figures. They all know him too well—and, well, this wouldn’t be the first time Jisung has let curiosity get the best of him.

The door jingles, swinging shut behind Jisung as he steps outside. A light breeze pushes past him, carrying the smell of sweet spring and blooming flowers. Jisung takes a big inhale of it and scans the area. 

_Dammit,_ Jisung thinks again. Maybe it was a ploy to get him outside. There’s nobody around—the closest person is someone sitting outside a cafe a few stores across the street, and Jisung doesn't think that’s who either Chan or Changbin were referring to. 

Well, at least he’d gotten a breath of fresh air. And the clear blue skies just gave him an idea for his lyrics.

Lyrics, which he should get back to. Jisung takes a step back, but then—

 _Surprise!_ A cat silently leaps out from behind a nearby bush, coming to a poised landing in front of him. The orange-and-white fur and voice in his head can only mean one thing.

“Soonie!” Jisung says, breaking into a smile. So Chan and Changbin hadn’t been playing him after all. 

_It’s been a while,_ Soonie says. _And thanks for keeping me waiting out here for so long._

“Sorry, sorry,” Jisung replies. “The other two wouldn’t tell me what was going on. And it’s only been a few weeks. Aw, did you miss me?” Jisung asks. 

_No,_ Soonie is quick to answer. _Okay, maybe a little, but I’m only here because I found something,_ Soonie admits.

“Oh—what is it?” Jisung asks curiously. 

There’s actual giggling in his head. Cats can’t even really laugh in real life. Then again, most cats can’t speak to humans either. But Jisung feels a burgeoning sense of trepidation.

 _Hold on,_ Soonie says, ducking into the bush she came from. 

_I believe you dropped these this morning,_ Soonie says, stepping back out. In her mouth is Jisung’s lanyard and set of keys, one of which is for the music shop. 

“I- what,” Jisung gapes at the sight. “How…” So this is surely what Chan and Changbin were cackling about. 

_You dropped them this morning,_ Soonie says again.

“No… did I really?” _Or did you steal them from me somehow,_ Jisung asks, narrowing his eyes. He’s sure he would have noticed if he really did drop them.

 _Yes, you really did. I was passing by earlier when you were unlocking the shop. You thought you were shoving them into your pocket but you only stuck them into thin air,_ Soonie recalls, matter-of-factly. _So I caught them as they were falling and I stuck them in the bush for safekeeping. Thought it might be fun to surprise you later, so now I’m giving them back._ Jisung bends down and Soonie drops the keys into his hand. 

“But I’ve really been trying so hard not to lose them again…” Jisung keeps looking at the keys, but his eyes are only telling him the truth. At this rate, he should probably just wear the lanyard properly, around his neck. “And why would you even be passing by this area?”

_Ah, just checking up on you guys. You know, the forest wants to make sure you’re all doing fine._

Jisung’s heart swells. He bends down again to scratch the spot behind Soonie’s ears, but she ducks away from Jisung’s fingers. Jisung giggles at that; some things don’t really change.

 _Hey, don’t get that sappy look in your eyes. I’m just doing my job, that’s all. Doing the forest’s calling,_ Soonie tells him, regarding him disdainfully—though Jisung thinks it’s not all disdain under the surface.

Jisung grins. “Of course.” 

But this time the cat had returned his keys rather than running away with them, so he thinks that’s an improvement.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So actually there's this one cat in my neighborhood that really likes to follow me around ;-;; and that's how I got the inspiration for this story ahahaha.
> 
> Anyway... I started this expecting it to be quite a bit shorter... but then it kinda just became sort of long. To be honest, I've actually never finished writing something this long and substantial so I almost can't believe that I really reached the end of this. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who left kudos and commented—you're all amazing. It means so much that other people enjoyed reading this, it really does. Unfortunately, I'm not magical, but you can pretend that I am showering you in tons of magic and love right now <3
> 
> I probably won't be writing another long story for a while ahaha but I do have some more shorter minsung fics in the works... and I've wanted to try writing 2min or seungbin so I'll finally be able to get around to that. So stay tuned I guess. 
> 
> Also I recently got a [twitter](https://twitter.com/in_a_rabbithole) and [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/glissandos) (though arguably Jisung is the real curious cat in this story!). Still trying to figure out how to use the platforms but I would love to talk to anyone about pretty much anything, haha.
> 
> Again, _thank you_ if you're reading this. I hope you have an amazing day/night :^))


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